PEIRESC (Nicolas Claude Fabri de)

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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
PEIRESC (Nicolas Claude Fabri de)
Origines murensis monasterii, in Helvetijs atque adeorum Europâ universâ... Spiremberg, In Bibliopolio Brucknausenio [Frankfurt], 1618. In-4, half brown calf, spine decorated (modern binding in the old style). First edition of the only book published by Fabri de Peiresc (150-1637), a French scholar and humanist, one of the most illustrious scholars in 17th-century Europe. It is decorated with a folding table, titled Antiqua principium fundatorum murensis monasterii. This work sets out the result of Peiresc's investigation to refute the claims of the House of Habsburg to the throne of France, which are based on a fabricated medieval genealogy. Based on eleventh-century documents preserved in the monastery of Muri in Switzerland, closely linked to the founding of the House of Habsburg, Peiresc conclusively demonstrated its falsity. Peiresc's authorship of this work was definitively established in a published study of its genesis and publication by the American historian and Peiresc scholar Peter N. Miller ("The Ancient Constitution and the Genealogist...", in Republics of Letters, n°1, 2009). The fact that Peiresc was secretary to Guillaume du Vair, Garde des Sceaux of Louis XIII, and the role played in the search for documents in Switzerland by Méry de Vic, French ambassador in the Helvetic Confederation, give this historical survey an almost official character. Copy bearing on the title this old handwritten mention: Ex dono auctoris. Stamps erased on the title. CORRECTION : THE PLATE DESCRIBING THE MONASTERY IS MISSING
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