![[LAMOIGNON DE BAVILLE, Nicolas de (1648-1724)]. Manuscript, Mémoire Historique et Politique sur la Province du Languedoc, Montpelier, 1796, a copy by Pierre Serre in 1718 (signed and dated on the title page), including 6 maps and 11 architectural d](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1998/CKS/1998_CKS_05974_0104_000(104445).jpg?w=1)
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[LAMOIGNON DE BAVILLE, Nicolas de (1648-1724)]. Manuscript, Mémoire Historique et Politique sur la Province du Languedoc, Montpelier, 1796, a copy by Pierre Serre in 1718 (signed and dated on the title page), including 6 maps and 11 architectural drawings in pen and ink and watercolour, signed 'P.Serre', samples of varieties of broadcloth in different colours laid on three pages, 16 tables of statistics. Manuscript in brown ink in an early 18th-century hand, the maps (sizes 370 x 540mm - 370 x 700mm) tipped in on guards and folded back, 446 pages, folio, 370 x 250mm. Contemporary red morocco, single gilt fillet on covers, spine in six compartments tooled in gilt with fleur de lys and letter 'B'. Provenance. 'L'archevêque de Toulouse 1718', 'Monseigneur de Beaunau archevêque de Narbonne' and 'M. l'Archevêque Toulouse' (inscriptions on title page).
The maps comprise 'Carte des Costes du Languedoc', 'Carte des Régiments de Milice Bourgeoise', 'Carte de la jonction des deux mers par le canal royal', 'Carte de l'isle de Cette', 'Carte des grands chemins royaux des Cévènes et Vivarais', 'Carte particulière du port d'Adge'. The illustrations are of 'La maison quarré de Nismes', 'le Temple de Diane', 'Amphitéâtre de Nismes', 'Le pont du Gard', 'Le pont de S.Esprit', 'Le pont de Toulouse', 'Le huit encluses de Foncerane', 'L'écluse ronde d'Adge', 'Le pont de Cesse', 'Plan et profil d'un des aqueducs du canal royal', 'Plan des vieux et nouvaux crochets au bout du grand môle du port de Cette'.
One of several recorded manuscripts of Lamoignon de Baville's Mémoire, each including variants, written between 1696 when the work was completed and 1734, the date of the first edition, published in Amsterdam. The present copy is unusually complete. A similar manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale (FR. 11415) has no maps and only four drawings (by Estienne Boyer). The letter 'B' on the spine may indicate that the manuscript was bound for the archbishop of Narbonne, Monseigneur Beaunau.
Nicolas Lamoignon de Baville, a lawyer by training, obtained in turn the Intendances of Montauban, Pau, Poitiers and, in 1685, Montpellier where he remained for thirty-three years. He was remembered there for the extreme severity of the measures he enacted against the protestants. The Mémoire was written for the education of Louis, Duke of Burgundy (1682-1712), grandson of Louis XIV and father of Louis XV.
The subjects of the Mémoire are the present state of Languedoc, its ecclesiastical, civil and military government, trade, levies and impositions, with a summary of the most important events before and after the reunion of the province with the Kingdom of France. The sets of tables refer mostly to the state of religion. The richly coloured samples of cloth on pages 309-311, are for the Levant trade, 'Ils se servent de quatre sortes de draps. Les plus beaux et de plus grand prix s'appellent Mahbours et imitent ceux qui se font à Venize, la seconde sorte s'appelle Londrine Première, et Londrine Seconde, est au prix de 13: 12: 11: 10: 9:, et 8ff l'aune ... c'était autrefois le principal commerce de la Ville de Carcassone'.
The maps comprise 'Carte des Costes du Languedoc', 'Carte des Régiments de Milice Bourgeoise', 'Carte de la jonction des deux mers par le canal royal', 'Carte de l'isle de Cette', 'Carte des grands chemins royaux des Cévènes et Vivarais', 'Carte particulière du port d'Adge'. The illustrations are of 'La maison quarré de Nismes', 'le Temple de Diane', 'Amphitéâtre de Nismes', 'Le pont du Gard', 'Le pont de S.Esprit', 'Le pont de Toulouse', 'Le huit encluses de Foncerane', 'L'écluse ronde d'Adge', 'Le pont de Cesse', 'Plan et profil d'un des aqueducs du canal royal', 'Plan des vieux et nouvaux crochets au bout du grand môle du port de Cette'.
One of several recorded manuscripts of Lamoignon de Baville's Mémoire, each including variants, written between 1696 when the work was completed and 1734, the date of the first edition, published in Amsterdam. The present copy is unusually complete. A similar manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale (FR. 11415) has no maps and only four drawings (by Estienne Boyer). The letter 'B' on the spine may indicate that the manuscript was bound for the archbishop of Narbonne, Monseigneur Beaunau.
Nicolas Lamoignon de Baville, a lawyer by training, obtained in turn the Intendances of Montauban, Pau, Poitiers and, in 1685, Montpellier where he remained for thirty-three years. He was remembered there for the extreme severity of the measures he enacted against the protestants. The Mémoire was written for the education of Louis, Duke of Burgundy (1682-1712), grandson of Louis XIV and father of Louis XV.
The subjects of the Mémoire are the present state of Languedoc, its ecclesiastical, civil and military government, trade, levies and impositions, with a summary of the most important events before and after the reunion of the province with the Kingdom of France. The sets of tables refer mostly to the state of religion. The richly coloured samples of cloth on pages 309-311, are for the Levant trade, 'Ils se servent de quatre sortes de draps. Les plus beaux et de plus grand prix s'appellent Mahbours et imitent ceux qui se font à Venize, la seconde sorte s'appelle Londrine Première, et Londrine Seconde, est au prix de 13: 12: 11: 10: 9:, et 8