1729 ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO ROYAL COURT. La Science des Personnes de Cour, d'Epee et de Robe, de Sieur de Chevigni, dans laquelle, outre les Matieres contenues dans les Editions precedentes, on trouve une Instruction plus ample sur la Religion, l'Astronomie, la Chronologie, la Geographie, la Guerre, les Fortifications, le Blason, les Fables

Amsterdam: Zacharie Chatelain, 1729. 7th edition.

1729 PORTABLE 4-VOLUME ENCYCLOPEDIA WITH ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW TO PARTICIPATE IN COURTLY AFFAIRS, ILLUSTRATED WITH SUPERB ENGRAVED MAPS AND ROYAL PEDIGREES.

Four hardcover volumes, each 6 1/2 inches tall, 3/4 leather binding, brown paper covers, spine gilt with gilt red leather labels, Vol. I, engraved frontispiece titled, Trahat sua quemque voluptas [To each his own taste], [54], 427, 16 folding plates; Vol. II, [8], 479, 33 folding plates; Vol III, [4], 408, 11 folding plates; Vol IV, [4], 410 (lacking pp 131-134, inserted in facsimile), 7 folding plates. Cover corners bumped and worn, spine gilt bright, bindings tight. Brown stain upper corner of last pages of Vol. I, not affecting plates, offsetting of some plates, text and plates clean and unmarked, overall very good.

LA SCIENCE DES PERSONNES DE COUR, D'EPEE ET DE ROBE [The Science of People of Court, Sword and Robe] is an encyclopedia originally published in Paris by Sieur de Chevigny in two volumes in 1706. Publication was transferred to Amsterdam the following year, with the second edition published by François L'Honoré. The 3rd edition was published by the brothers Chatelain, and subsequent editions (including the 7th, offered here) were edited by Henri Philippe de Limiers, a heraldist born in the Netherlands of French parents towards the end of the 17th century. He also published the annals of the French monarchy, including the annals of King Louis XIII and King Louis XIV. The success of La Science des personnes de Cour is evidenced by new editions published by Pierre Massuet through the 1750s. The small encyclopedia is a compendium of knowledge for life in the royal court, with essential information including astronomy, geography, government, civil and military architecture, diplomacy, law, philosophy, religion, history, and warfare. The last chapters include an overview of heraldry as well as heroic and moral fables, and offers advice regarding behavior at the royal court. The text is complemented by superb folding copper plate engravings, including maps of the world, ancestry trees of royal families, and depictions of cosmology.