OTTOMAN MANUSCRIPT BOUND FOR LOUIS XIV

[BOUND FOR LOUIS XIV] Édouard de La Croix 1640-1704) MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER. "Histoire des guerres des Turcs Contre la Pologne, la Moscovie, -- l'Allemagne, -- et La Republique de Venise Tome I". 4to. 22.5 x 16.7 cm., [13], 470 pages. Repairs to a couple tears on first two leaves, lightly soiled. Late seventeenth century maroon morocco, spine in compartments with five raised bands and tooled and lettered in gilt, all edges gilt, arms of Louis XIV on covers, possibly expertly re-backed with the spine laid down, renewed at the corners and head- and tail-caps, couple pages including with hairline tears repaired, signed by the presumed scribe three times. The Tome I to spine indicates the manuscript was likely unfinished rather than incomplete.

The present work by Sieur de La Croix was eventually published in a revised from Paris in 1689, but this scribal manuscript precedes the publication. There are notable difference between the manuscript and the final published texts, including revisions that removed the accounts of German and Venetian conflicts and replaced those with events of war between the Turks and Hungary.

"De La Croix was born in Paris, the son of the Arabic interpreter of the French court and author, also named François Pétis de la Croix (1622-1695)[1] and inherited this office at his father's death, afterwards transmitting it to his own son, Alexandre Louis Marie, who also became a notable orientalist. At an early age, François was sent by Colbert to the East; during the ten years he spent in Syria, Persia and Turkey he learned Arabic, Persian and Turkish and collected materials which he would use in future writings." The authorial copy of the present manuscript appears to be held at the BnF (Français 6094), which includes a dedicatory epistle to Louis XIV dated 26 March 1682. It is a reasonable presumption that the present manuscript was written shortly thereafter for the use and library of Louis XIV, The handwriting of this manuscript appears to match the hand of another manuscript sold at Christie in 2017: 'Le Serail des Empereurs othomans', [c.1670s-80s],

The 1680s were indeed a pivotal time in French-Ottoman relations and witness a revival of the alliance under Louis XIV. "From 1683 and for a period of sixteen years, the Holy Roman Empire would be occupied in fighting the Ottoman Empire in the Great Turkish War. Louis refused to participate in the Holy League, a coalition of European powers against the Ottomans, adopting a position of neutrality, and encouraged Mehmed IV to persevere in his fight against the Hapsburg's Pamphleteers and poets would criticize the position of Louis, and reinforce the unity of the League, by describing a battle between European "Liberty" on the one hand and "Eastern despotism" associated with "French absolutism" on the other." [Wikipedia]