De Comines - Mémoires - 1682

I MEMOIRS DI COMMYNES BETWEEN POLITICS, INTRIGUE, AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN historiography
The Mémoires of Philippe de Commynes are considered one of the fundamental works of European historiography between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Written by a direct participant in French politics of the 15th century, a counselor and diplomat at the court of Louis XI and later in the service of Charles VIII, these texts offer a lucid and often disenchanted reflection on power, diplomacy, and the art of governance. The edition published in The Hague in 1682 by the publisher Arnout Leers, edited by Denis Godefroy, resumes the great Paris edition of the Imprimerie Royale of 1649, enriching it with documents, treatises, and diplomatic acts that illustrate and complete the historical narrative. In two compact volumes richly illustrated with engraved portraits and a folded genealogical tree, this print represents one of the most widespread and elegant late-seventeenth-century editions of the work.
MARKET VALUE
The seventeenth-century editions of the Mémoires of Commynes edited by Denis Godefroy appear with steady regularity on the antiquarian market, but complete two-volume copies with plates and portraits remain sought after by collectors of French history and of political historiography. Complete specimens of the The Hague 1682 edition generally fetch between €800 and €1,400 on the international antiquarian market; well-preserved copies with all engravings and contemporary bindings can reach €1,500–€1,800.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
2 volumes. Contemporary full brown calf bindings with gold-decorated spines and sprinkled edges; spines with some abrasions and signs of wear. Volume I: Illustrated with three text-out portraits depicting Philippe de Commynes, Louis XI, and Charles the Bold, and with a large folded genealogical tree. A restored tear on pages 489–496 with traces of adhesive intervention. Some browning and foxing of pages. Some tears and restorations. In antique books, with a multigenerational history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 48nn; 600; 14nn; (4). (2); 58nn; 402; 6nn; (4).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Les mémoires de Messire Philippe de Comines.
Divers traictez, contracts, testamens, et autres actes et observations, servans de preuves et illustration aux Mémoires de Philippe de Comines.
La Haye, Arnout Leers, 1682.
Philippe de Commynes.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Philippe de Commynes is often considered the first great political historian of the modern era. His Mémoires constitute a direct testimony of European politics in the second half of the 15th century and offer a privileged view of the reigns of Louis XI and Charles VIII. The work is not only a chronicle of events but a sophisticated reflection on the nature of power, on diplomacy, and on sovereign strategies.
The editorial fortune of the Mémoires was extraordinary. In the 17th century, the historian and jurist Denis Godefroy produced a new critical edition enriched by a vast documentary apparatus composed of treatises, contracts, and official acts intended to illuminate and verify Commynes’ narrative. The The Hague 1682 edition repeats the Paris 1649 edition of the Imprimerie Royale, reorganizing the material and disseminating it to the European scholarly public. Thanks to its combination of autobiographical narration, political analysis, and archival documentation, the work remains one of the fundamental sources for the history of the French monarchy and for the study of late medieval European diplomacy.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Philippe de Commynes (circa 1447–1511) was one of the most important diplomats and chroniclers of late-medieval France. Born in the Low Countries, he initially entered the service of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, before moving in 1472 to the court of King Louis XI of France, of whom he became one of the most trusted advisers. He participated in numerous diplomatic missions and was a direct witness to many decisive events in European politics of his time. Retreating gradually from political life, he composed his Mémoires, a work that combines personal experience and political reflection, now regarded as one of the earliest examples of modern historiography based on direct observation of events.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Mémoires of Commynes were first printed in the 16th century and went through numerous reprintings in subsequent centuries. In 1649 Denis Godefroy published in Paris, at the Imprimerie Royale, a new enlarged edition with numerous archival documents and diplomatic materials. The 1682 The Hague edition, printed by Arnout Leers, represents a reprint of that Paris edition with some changes in the preliminaries and in the distribution of the supplementary material. Thanks to the scientific reputation of Godefroy and the typography quality of the edition, this print contributed to the European diffusion of the Mémoires and solidified Commynes’ place among the great historians of European politics.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur de livres, II, p. 191.
Bibliotheca Belgica, C 199.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, catalogues of the editions of the Mémoires of Philippe de Commynes.
WorldCat, Les mémoires de Messire Philippe de Comines, La Haye, Arnout Leers, 1682.
Denis Godefroy, édition critique des Mémoires de Philippe de Commynes, Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1649.
Joël Blanchard, Commynes l’Européen, Genève, Droz, 1996.