Justin Croft Antiquarian Books : [ERARD, Claude.] - Plaidoyez de Mr.***, avocat au Parlement.

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[ERARD, Claude.] Plaidoyez de Mr.***, avocat au Parlement. Paris: Jacques Le Febvre, 1696.

8vo (188 × 120 mm), pp. [iv], 495, [1]. Woodcut device to title, ornaments to text. Occasional light browning. Contemporary calf, gilt panelled spine, red morocco label. Spine chipped at head and foot with minor loss, corners bumped. Title bearing the contemporary inscription “di don de l’autheur” and the author’s name filled in, together with an illegible signature below. A good copy.

First edition of Erard’s legal pleas, a presentation copy. Included as the seventh plea is Erard’s presentation at the celebrated case of the Duc de Mazarin and his wife Hortense née Mancini. Hortense had been one of the mistresses of the English Charles II before entering into an unhappy marriage with the bizarre Armand Charles de La Porte, later Duc de Mazarin, whose jealously and psychosexual oddities led to her elopement to England (after a purported lesbian love affair) and request for divorce. The case is described in detail. It was printed in English in 1699.

Worldcat lists the copy at National Library, Quebec only outside Europe.

£700.00 (equal to approx. US$1108.44* or €865.70* for 22 May 2012)

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