Manuscrit inédit intitulé "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du publicanisme moderne contenant l'origine, les noms, qualités, le portrait et l'histoire abrégée de nosseigneurs les fermiers généraux du Roy qui se sont succédés depuis l'année 1720 jusqu'à la présente année 1750" [avec] "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du publicanisme ou l'Origine des receveurs généraux des finances du royaume"

Manuscript entitled “Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du publicanisme moderne
contenant l'origine, les noms, qualités, le portrait et l'histoire abrégée de nosseigneurs
les fermiers généraux du Roy qui se sont succédés depuis l'année 1720 jusqu'à la
présente année 1750” [with] “Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du publicanisme
ou l'Origine des receveurs généraux des finances du royaume”
Important and long manuscript composed of two parts written by two different hands retracing in total 160 biographies of the Fermiers Généraux active between 1720 and 1750, lavish and unpopular collectors of indirect taxes in the Ancien Régime. Each of the parts also contains a very useful index.

The entries – with the exception of 19 of them – are all decorated with a coat of arms drawn in pencil, painted by hand in colour and sometimes enhanced with gold or silver. Some modern notes (some juicy) in pencil in the margin of certain leaves. These memoirs have never been the object of a publication and we know of only a few handwritten copies with varying texts. The other examples that we have been able to find, including the one digitised by the French National Library, contain fewer biographies that ours and are not illustrated.

Contemporary binding in full blond marbled calf, title pieces in black and red morocco. Joints, top of the first board and spine head repaired, joints of the first board split but solid, scratches on the boards, corners damaged.
A very beautiful manuscript, richly painted, retracing the history of the most despised institution of the Ancien Régime.

Provenance: library of Count Chandon de Briailles, descendent of the founders of the famous house of Champagne, then of the Michel de Bry library with its motto ”Pro captu lectoris” with their ex-libris glued to the first endpapers.