Office de la semaine sainte

Edition in Latin and French illustrated with three plates by Scotin and a beautiful frontispiece title. With the avertissement
Fine contemporary fanfare binding, with the arms of Maria Josepha of Saxony, mother to the last three kings of France, spine with gilt-stamped fleur-de-lys, covers eloraborately tooled in gold to a fanfare design in the style of Florimond Badier (same as the one in Les Reliures d'art à la Bibliothèque Nationale, pl. 74), with the arms of Maria-Josepha of Saxony (O.H.R. pl. 2526, no. 2), green and gilt tabby pastedowns and endpapers, all edges gilt. Corners, joints, and spine-ends very skillfully restored. A few slightly foxed pages.
Daughter of King Auguste III of Poland and Archduchess Maria-Josepha of Austria, Maria Josepha of Saxony (1731 – 1767) was Dauphine of France and notably gave birth to the last three kings of the eldest Bourbon branch, the Duke of Berry (future Louis XVI), the Count of Provence (future Louis XVIII) and the Count of Artois (future Charles X). She was also the granddaughter of Emperor Joseph I of the Holy Roman Empire.
A pious, Catholic woman, she educated her children in accordance with her faith; among her children, Elizabeth died with a reputation for sanctity and Clothilde was declared venerable by the Catholic Church.
She never became queen, her husband having died prematurely of tuberculosis ; she followed him fifteen months later, breathing her last at Versailles, where she spent most of her life.
This copy comes from her personal library in Versailles, which mainly contains works of devotion in elaborately decorated armorial bindings.
An exceptional copy.