| Summary: | Studying the judges’ épices, a peculiar type of judicial fees, gives a perfect instance of the problems of methodology and epistemology while exploring judicial archives, particularly in regards to the Old regime civil justice. It shows how difficult it can be to reach consistent materials and then, how complex it is to exploit it. Then comes the question of how representative these sources may be, all the most when it comes to local ones. Nevertheless it allows discoveries that lead to reconsider the image of the épices, somehow reflecting a “mythology” of the expenses of royal justice. The judicial sources both confirm and supplement what the legal source pinpoints, legal and legitimate fees, not devoid of some paradox.
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