Testament Politique by CHEVRIER, François-Antoine de (1721-1762).

CHEVRIER, François-Antoine de (1721-1762).

Testament Politique du Maréchal duc de Belle-Isle. Paris, aux dépens des Libraires associés, 1762.

Small 8vo, (154 x 87mm), pp. v [ie viii], 184, in contemporary Germany speckled calf, spine gilt in compartments with black morocco label lettered in gilt, covers gilt with heraldic arms and lettered ‘AWGVDS’, with the elegant heraldic bookplate of Achatz Wilhelm, ReichsGraff von der Schulenburg, marbled endpapers.

An attractive copy in a German heraldic binding of these popular apocryphal memoirs, first published in Amsterdam in 1761. Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle (1684-1761) was the grandson of the famous finance minister to Louis XIV. Chevrier’s work was hugely popular, running to many editions in French and being translated into English as The Political Testament of the Marshal Duke of Belle Isle, London 1762. The subjects covered include taxation, commerce, law, imports, the celebacy of priests and luxury. Chapter Five (pp. 97-101) is about the history of the young pretender and the Stuarts. ‘Je vois, avec douleur, que tous les Princes de la Maison de Stuard ont mérité l’horreur de leur situation par foiblesse, ou par nonchalance, & je pense qu’il faut regarder cette Maison comme éteinte, par le découragement de celui qui seul peut la relever’ (p. 102).

OCLC lists BL, Cambridge, NLS, Yale, College of the Holy Cross, Princeton and Syracuse.

See Cioranescu 19479; Einaudi, 1076; Goldsmiths, 9713; INED, 379; Higgs, 2627

Keywords: Continental Books
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