Item #135 Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé. Laurent Angliviel de La Beaumelle.
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé

Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, et à celle du siècle passé

Publisher: Hamburg: A Hambourg (Hamburg), 1756.

Illustration: Engraved frontispiece portrait of Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon

Edition: Nouvelle édition, revue & corrigée (1756 Hamburg printing, third edition)

Binding: Contemporary full calf, spines gilt in compartments with floral ornaments and circular tools, gilt titles and volume numbers (“MEMOIR DE M. MAINTENON”). Red-sprinkled edges. Bindings worn: leather rubbed with some surface losses, chipping at head and tail of spines, worming to some boards, corners bumped. Still structurally sound and appealing as a set.

Description: A scarce and historically significant five-volume set of La Beaumelle’s Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Madame de Maintenon, one of the most controversial biographical works of the mid-18th century.

Madame de Maintenon (1635–1719), born Françoise d’Aubigné, secretly married Louis XIV in 1683 and wielded considerable influence at court until the king’s death in 1715. Her legacy has long been contested — pious widow, political intriguer, patroness of education at Saint-Cyr, and de facto queen of France.

La Beaumelle’s Mémoires, first published in 1755, sought to paint a critical, intimate portrait of Maintenon and the Sun King’s late reign. Condemned by authorities and repeatedly suppressed, the work was nevertheless widely read across Europe, fueling Enlightenment debates about absolute monarchy, religion, and women’s role in power.

This 1756 Hamburg edition (“Nouvelle Édition, revue & corrigée”), complete in five volumes, includes the striking engraved portrait of Maintenon at the front of Volume I. It remains a valuable source for both historians of the Ancien Régime and collectors of works documenting the women of Versailles.

Condition: Good, 5 volumes. Bindings rubbed and worn, headcaps chipped, worming to some boards, small losses at spine bases, corners rounded. Internal text generally clean, occasional foxing, paper crisp. Frontispiece of Maintenon present and well struck, with some toning and faint staining.

Item #135

Price: $900.00

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