Anecdotes du ministère du Cardinal de Richelieu et du règne de Louis XIII avec quelques particularitez du commencement de la Régence d'Anne d'Autriche. Tirées & traduites de l'Italien du Mercurio de Siri.

A Amsterdam, Aux dépens de la Compagnie (Rouen), 1717. Title printed in red and black. 2 volumes. (8), 472 pp.; 417, (1) pp. 12mo. Contemporary polished calf, spines richly gilt with raised bands, label with gilt lettering. Cf.: Bourgeois & André 8680; Thuau, Raison d'État et Politique à l'époque de Richelieu, p. 234; Conlon 17:745 (under Siri); Weller, Die falschen und fingierten Druckorte, ii, p. 83. First French edition, printed in Rouen according to Weller. Compilation from the Italian Il Mercurio overo historia dei correnti tiempi by the Italian historian Vittorio Siri. Siri had made an analysis of the Franco-Italian relations under Richelieu and Mazarin, the ambitions of Richelieu, the French court life, etc. Siri lived in France in the years 1649-1650 and this work contains 'une foule de pièces, fournis principalement de Hugues de Lionne, instructions, dépêches, mémoires, etc' (Bourgeois & André).This is of course not a book with anecdotes as we understand the word today: in earlier times the word "anecdote" meant something which had not yet been passed on, an "unpublished fact", something that had been kept secret. - First pages of volume one with tiny hole in lower blank margin. From the library of Bruno Monnier.