The assembly of notables from across France, which convened in Versailles for several months in the spring of 1787 to discuss the future of the country, represents a final snapshot of the Ancien Régime in retrospect. The leading representatives of the church, nobility, judiciary, and the largest cities in France struggled over a comprehensive reform of the tax and financial system proposed by the controversial minister Calonne. This study fully documents for the first time who these men were and how their private discussions provide a key to understanding the later events of the Revolution, which would be initiated in the same place and partly by the same actors.