Monsieur Du Refuge - Traicté de la Cour, ou Instruction des Courtisans - ex libris Duc de Portland - 1649

An important specimen traced from a double, highly prestigious curation provenance: the front pastedown hosts the large and elegant heraldic ex-libris belonging to William Arthur, 6th Duke of Portland (Knight of the Garter), bearing the famous motto of the Bentinck dynasty, “Craignez Honte.” The historical cataloging of this legendary private British library is also documented by the codes and the original inventory numbers impressed in gold on the back labels. On the rear pastedown there is a second refined wood-engraved ex-libris belonging to collector Aldo Maffei. The volume is in excellent overall condition. Housed in its solid and characteristic original full parchment binding contemporary with the period, the book shows an exceptionally robust and compact structure, with the boards firmly attached and the hinges perfectly intact. Externally it displays only the minimal, genuine, and fascinating signs of time that attest to its absolute authenticity. Internally, the pages are intact, fresh, and extraordinarily clean. The 17th‑century paper is sound, entirely free of restorations, tears, or the bothersome foxing that often affects texts of this period. The frontispiece is sharp and preserves the famous Elzevirian typographic mark with the hermit under the tree and the motto Non Solus. The work has an overall content of about 400 total pages. The main numbered body closes regularly at page 377 (enriched by a typographic grotesque at the end), followed by unnumbered leaves that host the imposing and very useful Table des Matières (the alphabetical index), bearing the word FIN at the end of the last section. This is a work of great rarity on the antiquarian market. This specific first Elzevir edition of 1649, printed in Leiden, is a piece of very high selectivity, today practically unobtainable on ordinary commercial platforms. The unique combination of the freshness of the period parchment and the heralded pedigree of the Portland duchal library makes this lot an opportunity of absolute significance for connoisseurs of elite bibliophilia and Elzevir editions.