Diplomatic letter writing under Louis XIV manuscript. 1689-1722.

Format
Manuscript
Language
French
Description
1 v. 19.0 x 24.5 cm (138 pages [pages 131-138 11 blank])

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    Details

    Subject(s)
    Compiled/​Created
    1689-1722.
    Summary note
    • Most likely written and updated by a secretary serving at the royal court, this guide documents the elaborate epistolary protocols employed by Louis XIV and his ministers, with notes on historic practice and precedent, providing a window into European politics and France's place in international relations at the close of the seventeenth century and opening of the eighteenth. The manuscript includes two sections: "Inscriptions, souscriptions et suscriptions dont le Roy se sert aux lettres que sa Majesté ecrit aux Princes Etrangers 1689" and "Inscriptions, souscriptions et suscriptions dont Monseigneur de Chamillart se sert aux lettres quil ecrit" as well as a table of contents for both sections located on the last 6 pages.
    • The first section, "Inscriptions, souscriptions et suscriptions dont le Roy se sert aux lettres que sa Majesté ecrit aux Princes Etrangers 1689" (pages 1-94), is devoted to the protocols to be followed by the king and queen when addressing correspondence to foreign rulers and governments, including formulae for opening, closing, signing and correctly laying out correspondence; the type of paper or parchment to be used; whether the king should write in his own hand; whether French or Latin should be used; and examples of changing practice over time, dating back to the 1630s. The instructions are arranged by locality, beginning with the Pope and the Italian states, and moving through the Swiss cantons, Spain, Denmark, England, Poland, Portugal, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, the Hanseatic League, Holland, the Ottoman Empire, Algiers, Fez, Persia, Siam, and Russia Some of the historical notes scattered throughout include the fact that the queen must tie up her letters to the Pope with silk; and in the section devoted to England there is a note of the signature, paper, and blue silk used by Charles II in a letter of 1683, and of how the French king had addressed Oliver and Richard Cromwell following the 'usurpation of authority' after the death of Charles I. In the notes to the practice to be followed towards Siam there is mention of Guy Tachard, the French Jesuit missionary and mathematician who was twice sent on embassies there by Louis XIV; and there is regular mention of the precedents adopted by Cardinal Mazarin and by the diplomats and statesmen the Marquis de Pomponne and Marquis de Croissy.
    • The second section, "Inscriptions, souscriptions et suscriptions dont Monseigneur de Chamillart se sert aux lettres quil ecrit" (pages 95-130), comprises the formulae employed by Michel Chamillart (1652-1721), who served as Controller-General of Finance (1699-1708) and as Secretary of State for War (1701-1709), when addressing the French royal family and nobility, military, ecclesiastical, civil, and political officials, and foreign rulers. Marginal notes in this section, dated 1719 and 1722, show that this manuscript continued to be used under Chamillart's successors.
    Binding note
    Eighteenth-century mottled calf, gilt decoration to spine and board edges
    Source acquisition
    Purchase, 2016. AM 2016-106.
    OCLC
    1340487921
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