Calligraphic manuscript:

£27,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books · No longer available

a unique manuscript on the French navy presented from Louis XVI to Marie-Antoinette An exceptional presentation association manuscript, bound for and with manuscript dedication to King Louis XVI from the author, with the arms of Marie-Antoinette on the doublures indicating that the book was subsequently presented directly from the King to her. This beautiful manuscript, specially prepared for presentation to the King and comprising 394 pages of text followed by 22 pages explaining the marine terms used throughout, was presumably written and decorated by the eminent XVIII century French calligrapher J. Foyt. Foyt prepared another manuscript for the dedicatee, De Sartine, which was similarly produced in imitation of a printed book. That copy was bound in red morocco by Derome, and was later found in the Nicolas Yemeniz and Cortland Bishop collections Guillaume Poncet de la Grave (1725 – 1803) was a French historian and the King's attorney at France's Senior Admiralty Court. The text, a history of the French Navy from its inception to the time of Louis XVI, is the same as that published in Précis historique de la Marine Royale de France, depuis l'origine de la monarchie jusqu'au Roi régnant (Paris, Eugene Onfroy, [1780]). The published edition is in two volumes and without illustrations, and includes a different dedication (to Monseigneur de Sartine, Ministre et Secrétaire d'État au Département de la Marine) and preface. There is an index at the end of each volume. The history i

• Binding: Hardcover

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