Memoires de M de *** pour servir a l'histoire des négociations depuis le traité de Riswick jusqu'à la paix d'Utrecht

First edition.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Smooth spine richly decorated with ornamental tools and roulettes. Red morocco title and volume labels. The title label reads "Memoire de Torcy" while the title page is anonymous, so the author of these anonymous memoirs must have been well known at the time. Light rubbing. The half-titles of volumes II and III are not present, as in all copies we have consulted, so it is possible that they are not actually missing, and that there was only one half-title for the entire work. Very handsome copy, very fresh.
Armorial bookplate engraved in the 18th century of Louis Francois (1713-1791), Marquis de Monteynard (Languedoc), First Governor of Corsica, Secretary of State for the War Department and Lieutenant General of Burgundy. Vair, a chief gules, charged with a lion naissant or.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Torcy, was an important French diplomat and a key figure in the various international congresses that led to the establishment of the Peace of Utrecht and the end of the War of Spanish Succession. Between the Treaty of Ryswick and that of Utrecht, France lost Acadia (Quebec) and its other American territories, as well as its dream of hegemony over Europe, but gained a relatively lasting peace and the security of its national territory. The three volumes are distributed as follows: I. negotiations with Spain, II, with Holland, III, with England, and for the Treaty of Utrecht.