Beschreibung:

i) Letter book, entitled "Plusieurs Lettres de Smid [sic] Et Autres", comprising copies of several hundred letters written from 1654 to 1702, not in chronological order, mostly to Sophia, others to her husband Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, by a wide range of European royals and nobility including Queen Henrietta Maria, Prince Rupert and Louis XIV, discussing court life, military matters, philosophy, politics, literature, and personal affairs, in French, 387 pages, plus blanks, folio, early 18th century, contemporary calf, spine gilt, worn, spotting ii) Commonplace book containing entries in prose and verse, including satires, accounts of royal feasts, carnivals, weddings, ceremonials and entertainments (e.g. "hannover au Carnaval 1702 | Trimalcion Moderne" and "La Trouppe de la Reine de Prusse"), speeches (e.g. "Le compliment que fit le Cardinal Primat au Roy de Pologne"), royal audiences ("Recuit des premieres Audinces de Mr. De Spanheim à Versailles le Mardi 8/18 Fevr. 1698"), funeral orations, notes on religious toleration, the English succession following the Bill of Rights, British history, as well as lists of books ("Catalogue des livres nouveaux de l'année 1701 chez Pierre Marteau à Cologne"), extracts from Edward Herbert's Religio Laici ("Ecrits de My lord Herbert traduit de l'Anglois en François Par le Sr. Chevreau"), copy letters, and an "Etymologie of Germain and English Words", in at least four distinct hands, French, Italian, German and English, 426 pages, plus blanks, folio, early 18th century (final entry dated 1735), contemporary calf, spine gilt, binding worn and splitting at upper joint, spotting