BOULAINVILLIERS (HENRI DE) Lot n° 22

Extracts from the Memoires sur les generalitez de France, drawn up by Messieurs les Intendants des provinces selon l'ordre de Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne by M. L. C. D. C. D. B. In French, manuscripts on paper France, around 1715 7 volumes in-4°, with vol. I : [4] ff. + LXXII + 880 pp. ; vol. II : [2] ff. + 795 pp. ; vol. III : [2] ff. + 884 pp.; vol. IV : [2] ff. 830 pp. ; vol. V : [2] ff. + 580 pp. ; vol. VI : [2] ff. + 799 pp. ; vol. VII : [2] ff. + 561 pp. in cursive writing in brown ink. Bindings homogeneous for 6 volumes out of 7, volume 5 is bound differently. Bindings in full glazed blond calf, spine with 5 nerves partitioned with fleurons, title pieces and gilt lettering, double gilt fillet on the edges, gilt inner scroll, counterguards and endpapers in gilt, red edges. Defects of use, epidermis and rubbing, slightly damaged headbands, weakened spines (at the end of the spine). - Binding of vol. 5 : full stiff parchment, spine with 5 nerves, red leather title-pieces and gilt lettering, work slightly larger than the other volumes (210 x 300 mm). Size of the leaves : 190 x 270 mm ; size of the bindings : 200 x 275 mm. These Memoirs were drawn up by order of the Court for the instruction of Monsieur le Duc de Bourgogne: very few originals survive and therefore the copies and extracts of Boulainvilliers are useful. These Memoirs of intendants provide a lot of information about the situation of the provinces at the end of the XVIIe century. Provenance : Copy made for Louis Le Bouthillier de Pont Chavigny : one finds on the title of each volume an armorial bookplate engraved on the title page : " Ex libris Ludovici Le Bouthillier de Pont Chavigny " and motto : " Si fortuna deest, probitas virtusque rependit ". This ex-libris is also found in a manuscript kept in Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, MS 1112. It is interesting to note that another manuscript work of Boulainvilliers, Essay de métaphysique...(Angoulême, BM, MS 29) contains the same system of engraved armorial bookplate of Louis Le Bouthillier, as does the work Mémoire concernant l'invasion de la Lorraine par Mr. le maréchal de Créquy (Aix, BM, MS 506). See : Esmonin (E.), "Les Mémoires des intendants pour l'instruction duc de Bourgogne", Études sur la France des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, 1964, pp. 113-130. - Trenard (L.), "Projet de publication de l'enquête des intendants (1698)", Bulletin de la section d "histoire moderne et contemporaine, fasc. IV, 1965, pp. 11-30.