Mouffle d’Angerville - Vie privée de Louis XV ; ou principaux événemens, particularités et anecdotes de son règne - 1781

Mouffle d’Angerville, Barthélémy. Private life of Louis XV; or the main events, particularities, and anecdotes of his reign.

Complete in 4 volumes, in-12.

London, John Peter Lyton. 1781. In-12. 398 pages; 403 pages; 399 pages; 391 pages. Uniform full brown calf bindings with smooth, richly decorated spines, featuring red morocco title pieces. Red edges. Manuscript ex-libris on the title pages reading 'Dufalu'.

Complete with the 9 engraved portraits outside the text.

Original edition of this scandalous work, published under a false address, which was banned and resulted in its author being imprisoned in the Bastille. The work, printed in London and banned by French censorship, was reprinted in Neuchâtel, then possession of the King of Prussia; it was clandestinely distributed in France with great success. A German translation made in Neuchâtel was sold freely in Germany despite some jabs at Frederick II, as Prussian censorship only required the removal of a few passages concerning the 'potato war' between Austria and Prussia.

Books in good, solid condition with wear and scuffs on the spines, headbands, corners, and hinges; missing at the head of the spine of volume three (see photos). Interior largely free of foxing. Uniform period bindings.

This work was reprinted in 1788 and, under the title Century of Louis XV, in 1796. The first volume contains interesting passages on the Regency, John Law, the Mississippi Company, etc. Several passages concern the French colonies in America and the East Indies, particularly those of Canada and Isle de France; an interesting letter from a philosopher traveling in Corsica on August 20, 1768.

Rare complete original edition in four volumes, bound in uniform period bindings of this work, which led its author to be imprisoned...