MIRABEAULivre Rare Book
Histoire secrete de la cour de Berlin ou correspondance d’un voyageur françois depuis de 5 juillet 1786 jusqu’au 19 janvier 1787. Ouvrage posthume. 1-3.
rif. 98096Rotterdam/ Paris 1789. 8vo. Engr. portrait 4 139; engr. portrait 4 viii 148;4 xv blank 127 pp. Stain in upper margins in part one and two paper repair p. 116 in part one. Contemporary half calf gilt spines with red labels and marbled paper boards red marbled edges. The two portrait are of Fredric II and Catharine the Great. Behind the first part is a new titelpage with ”Letters d’un voyageur anglois” behind the third part is ”Essai sur la secte des illuminés” by Jean Pierre Louis de Luchet or La Roche du Maine Marquis de Luchet with a separate extra title leaf. Several editions of both works were published in 1789 at least five of ”Essai”. Mirabeau’s ”Histoire secrete” was first printed in Alençon and made a scandal and was banned immediately after its publication. In the present edition the half-title and the title pages to part one and two are printed on different paper than the rest probably a titel-auflage. Luchet 1740-92 was a French officer journalist and librarian. In ’Essai sur la Secte des Illumines’ ”he denounces the leaders of the Bavarian Illuminati whom he accused of controlling Freemasonry”. hardcover
