Lettre pour servir de response à divers escrits qu'on a semez dans Paris & à la Cour contre quelques anciens titres qui prouvent que Messieurs de Boüillon d'aujourd'huy descendent en ligne directe & masculine des anciens ducs de Guyenne & comtes d'Auvergne

Very rare edition (cf. Saffroy III, 35 251).

Disbound copy, with a faint dampstain in the left margin of the title-page and a few insignificant spots of foxing.

This separately published tract was later inserted into the first volume of the celebrated *Histoire généalogique de la maison d’Auvergne* (1708).

Appended here, detached from the first volume and forming the origin of the controversy: [BALUZE, MABILLON et RUINART]: Procez verbal. Contenant l'examen & discussion de deux anciens cartulaires & de l'obituaire de l'église de saint Julien de Brioude en Auvergne, de neuf anciens titres compris en sept feüillets de parchemin, & de dix autres anciens feüillets aussi en parchemin, contenant des fragmens de deux tables, l'une par ordre des chiffres, & l'autre par alphabet, lesquels ont esté destachez d'un ancien cartulaire de la mesme église. Le tout pour faire voir que Géraud de la Tour, I. du nom, duc de Guyenne & comte d'Auvergne, comme il paroist par la table généalogique qui suit. Printed in Paris by Théodore Muguet, 1695, title-leaf and 22 pp. (cf. Saffroy III, 35 252).

This tract, drafted at the request of Cardinal de Bouillon, was likewise inserted into the *Histoire généalogique de la maison d’Auvergne*.

It marks the great scholar’s first engagement in the controversy surrounding the antiquity of the House of Bouillon—an affair in which he compromised himself out of friendship for his former Sorbonne classmate, Cardinal de Bouillon, exceedingly proud of his lineage. In 1695, the cardinal had asked him, as well as Dom Jean Mabillon, founder of diplomatics, and Dom Thierry Ruinart, to assess the authenticity of a set of 13th-century documents from the chapter archives of Brioude, which were meant to allow the La Tour family to extend their origins back to the 9th century by linking them to the former dukes of Aquitaine through the beneficiary counts of Auvergne.

This was indeed a period of escalating genealogical claims among the foremost families of the Kingdom, each seeking to construct a distinguished lineage. A close associate of the cardinal, one Jean-Pierre de Bar—former secretary to the royal genealogist and counsellor Jean du Bouchet—undertook to transmit the contested documents to the cardinal. The forgers were skilful: they succeeded in deceiving the three most eminent scholars in France, including Baluze himself, who, called upon as experts, unanimously issued a favourable report on 23 July 1695 (cf. piece below).

But Cardinal de Bouillon had many enemies, and a war of pamphlets, both manuscript and printed, soon began.

In March 1698, Baluze attempted to set out his full defence, though without truly succeeding in persuading anyone. The affair then followed two separate courses. On one side, justice pursued the forgers, who had been identified by the police. Two years later, in 1700, Jean-Pierre de Bar and his accomplices were arrested and, after a long and meticulous investigation, de Bar was found guilty in 1704. On the other side, Baluze nevertheless held to his opinion, convinced that the incriminated documents were genuine...