HERALDIAN. HOLY SPIRIT (Order of the) ORDER OF... Lot 21

[HERALDIAN]. [HOLY SPIRIT (Order of the)] ORDER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM THE SACRED OF THE KING TO THE PRESENT [from 1654 to 1702]. In French, manuscript and engraved work on paper, coat of arms enhanced with colors France, shortly after 1702 With engraved shields, hand-colored (gouache and tempera) In-4°, 246 ff. preceded and followed by 3 ff. of endpapers, complete, brown ink, cursive writing and roman letters (some titles stenciled), with 123 engraved and colored coats of arms. Bound in full brown marbled calf, five-ribbed spine with partitions and fleurons, gilt lettering on the spine: " Ordre du St Esprit. Louis XIV. 1654", guilloche edges, gilt edges (cracked jaws, damaged head and tail, damaged and dull corners, stains and epidermis on the boards). Size of the leaves : 170 x 235 mm Dimensions of the binding : 185 x 245 mm The Order of the Holy Spirit was founded by Henri III in 1578 to reward the members of the high nobility and to attach them to his person in an irrevocable way. It is the first order of the French monarchy and the monarchs of France were the grandmasters. Its members had to be Catholic, of hereditary nobility going back at least to their great-grandfather, and at least thirty-five years old. The princes foreign to the blood of France could be received from the age of twenty-five, the princes of the blood from the age of fifteen and the sons of France received it from their baptism. Louis XIV was the fourth Grand Master of the Order. This manuscript is composed of several sections with the first sections as follows: Vingtdeuxieme chapitre & le premier du Roy tenu a Reims le lendemain de son sacre le 8 juin 1654; Vingtroisieme chapitre tenu a Paris dans l'Eglise des Grands Augustins le 1er janvier 1662; deux dernières sections comme suit: XLI Creation. Faite a Versailles le 15 may 1702 (ff. 196-215); Officiers (ff. 216-246). The leaves contain on the left page the name of the knight, his titles and functions: a second hand gives the blazon of the family coat of arms. Opposite on the right page an engraved and painted shield with the coat of arms of the named knight. The day after his coronation, at the age of 16, Louis XIV receives the oath of his brother Philippe the duke of Anjou (14 years old) named knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit in Reims on June 8, 1654. The ceremony is depicted in a painting by Philippe de Champaigne in 1665 (Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble). The list of knights received under Louis XIV can be found in Colleville and Saint-Christo, Les Ordres du roi... Histoire des Ordres du Saint-Esprit, de Saint-Michel, de Saint-Louis, etc., Paris, s.d., pp. 16-26.