Histoire d'Espagne WITH Histoire de France et premierem[en]t des gaulloys [Fouquet, Nicolas] [Near Fine] [Hardcover]

Description

FOUQUET BEQUEST TO THE PARIS JESUITS. A manuscript history of Spain (44pp.) to 1580, and history of France (264pp.) to 1610. Written in a lovely legible XVIIc cursive, generally within a double russet border (single at the bottom). Duodecimo (4 3/4"" x 3"", 121mm x 78mm). Bound in russet crushed morocco. On the boards, a double gilt fillet border surrounding a double gilt fillet lozenge intersecting with a double gilt fillet panel, with ornaments at the corners. At the center, a gilt pair of linked phi's (for Fouquet) within a gilt half-palm, half-olive wreath. On the spine, a double gilt fillet border. Dashed gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Paste-downs marbled. All edges of the text-block gilt. Wear to the front lower fore-corner. A single worm-hole from the first leaf to p. 30 of the history of France. Altogether a fine little book. Circular bookplate gilt to the front paste-down. Ex libris ""L'hermitte/ Chirurgien"" to the recto of the first leaf. Fouquet (1615-1680), Viscount of Melun and Vaux, Marquis of Belle-Isle, and superintendent of Finance under Louis XIV, was one of the richest and most powerful men in France. His wealth, dubious financial transactions, and the splendour of his sumptuous entertainments in his magnificent Château de Vaux sealed his fate: Louis XIV had him sentenced to life imprisonment at Pignerol in 1665, where he eventually died. Fouquet was a great bibliophile and bestowed a perpetual annuity to the Jesuits in Paris to augment their library; books purchased from this fund were stamped with Fouquet's monogram. The identity of the surgeon L'Hermitte remains unclear. Olivier 1398, fer 4; Guigard II, 223-224.