Eustache Le Noble (1643-1711) Les Amours d'Anne d'Autriche, Epouse de Louis 13, avec le Cardinal Richelieu, le Veritable Pere de Louis 14, Aujourd'huy Roy de France.
Paris: Manuscript on Paper, circa 1700.
Quarto, seventy-nine inscribed pages, bound with four printed portrait engravings, text in a single column, eighteen lines per page in a professional italic hand, each within a thin red border; with eighteen blank leaves at the end; bound in full contemporary sponge-decorated calf, gilt-ruled boards, gilt-tooled spine, internally very fresh, 8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.
This manuscript was made after the third printed edition of Eustache Le Noble's work. The scribe has transcribed the complete title with printing place (Cologne) and date of imprint (1696). Anne of Austria (1601-1666) was queen consort to King Louis XIII of France and took up an opposing political position to Cardinal Richelieu (as she does in Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers). Despite opposition she seized the reins of power as regent on behalf of their son after Louis' death. She attracted enemies, and this work is the chief witness to them, alleging numerous sexual indiscretions, one with her enemy Richelieu, resulting in the apparent royal heir. The book was printed in Norwich and in Cologne. Ownership of a copy in France would have been quite dangerous in this period, but some person of means commissioned this fine copy.
