Beschreibung
A ROYAL BINDING FOR LOUIS XV OF FRANCE -- ONE OF TWO KNOWN COPIES OF HIS "REGNAL EDITION". [Paris]: Imprimerie Royale (Anisson), 1724. Quarto (10 7/8" x 7 7/8", 275mm x 200mm). [Full collation available.] Bound by Louis-Joseph Dubois in red morocco. On the boards, a gilt scrollwork border. Heraldic achievement of Louis XV (Olivier, fer 2494.12) at center, gilt. Gilt corner-pieces of the Holy Spirit (a dove) within a gilt cartouche surmounted by the Pentecostal flame and anchored by the fleur-de-lys. On the spine, five raised bands. In the panels, a semis (grid) of the fleur-de-lys alternating with the Pentecostal flame. Title gilt to the second panel. Gilt floral roll to the edges of the boards, continuing to the inside dentelle. Gilt scrollwork end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Presented in a red buckram slip-case, along with a typed letter signed by H. Clifford Maggs as well as the Maggs Bros. description on a separate sheet. A chip to the tailpiece, and rubbing generally to the spine and to the fore-corners. A single wormhole to the front hinge, not affecting the text. Some oxidation to the gilding of the end-papers. Ruled in sanguine throughout. Some tanning and occasional passages of foxing. Gilt leather label of Linda L. Beinecke on the front paste down, above signs of a removed (large) bookplate. Library label of the Comte de Chambord (Henri V of France, Duc de Bordeaux) affixed by Maggs to the verso of the front free end-paper. Violet inkstamp of Jaime, Duc de Bourbon, at Frohsdorf to the title-page as well as to p. 125 (Q3r). On the final day of 1578, Henri III established the Order of the Holy Spirit, a chivalric order recognizing his twin coronations as King of France (1574) and of Poland in (1573) on Pentecost. It has remained the highest French chivalric order -- twinned with the Order of St. Michael, which is older, as the "ordres du roi" -- although with the abolition of the French monarchy, its activities have been curtailed. Members wore a pale blue sash (cordon bleu), and as a result the phrase has been used to designate the pinnacle of a given métier. The first statutes of the order in this form were published in 1661. The most common edition is that of 1703, and the last 1788, but the present edition is notable for its publication in alignment with the majority and reign proper of Louis XV in 1723, which would continue for another fifty years. As king, Louis was "Souverain Grand Maître" of the Order. A great many copies are found in similar "official bindings," designed for the 1703 edition. Mazerolle has published the accounts of Dubois's bindings of the copies of this title as well as related volumes; an order was placed on 14 May 1724 for 12 copies with this binding in advance of the reception of various chevaliers and commandeurs later in the year. The present copy, however, stands apart. It is one of only two surviving copies of the 1724 "regnal" edition (the other being in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KW 1746 C 106). The present copy, however, descended through the royal family to the Legitimist pretender to the French throne, Henri V d'Artois (1820-1883), the great-great-grandson of Louis XV. Henri retired to Schloss Frohsdorf, just outside Vienna, which had belonged to his aunt-in-law, Marie-Thérèse, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. There it must have remained, as it was stamped in the Frohsdorf library of his nephew-in-law, Jaime de Borbón, the Carlist claimant to the Spanish throne (qua Jaime III) and the Legitimist pretender to the French throne (Jacques I). His niece Beatriz (or Beatrice) de Borbón, Princess Massimo di Roviano (1874-1961) inherited the Schloss and sold its library to Maggs Bros. in 1935. Maggs sold the copy to Mrs. Linda Louise Beinecke. Beinecke's husband, Edwin John, with his three brothers, established the Beinecke Library at Yale. M.F. Mazerolle, Documents sur les relieurs des ordres royaux. . . Paris: Leclerc & Cornuau, 1897; pp. 39-41. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers JLR0207
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