[MANUSCRIT]. ORMESSON (Olivier Lefèvre)]. Journal de Monsieu - Lot 87

[MANUSCRIT]. ORMESSON (Olivier Lefèvre)]. Journal de Monsieur d'Ormesson pendant la Chambre de Justice establie en decembre mil six cens soixante et un dans la Chambre des revisions lès la Chambre des comptes In French, manuscript on paper France, early 18th century (or very late 17th century?) 224 + 8 + 48 + 27 ff, preceded by 2 endpapers and followed by 5 endpapers, several cursive writings in brown ink. Full brown calf, spine with 5 nerves, double cold fillet on the boards, marbled paper endpapers. Joints cracked, boards faded with white dampstain on lower board, headpieces damaged. Size: 185 x 245 mm. A close contemporary copy of the famous Journal d'Ormesson covering the years 1661 to 1666 and beginning with the trial of Nicolas Fouquet (the complete Journal begins in 1643, see ed. Journal d'Olivier Lefèvre d'Ormesson. et extraits des mémoires d'André Lefèvre d'Ormesson. Volume one, 1643-1650, published by M. Chéruel). The text of the present manuscript appeared in Journal d'Olivier Lefèvre d'Ormesson. et extraits des mémoires d'André Lefèvre d'Ormesson. Volume two, 1661-1672. Several manuscripts and copies are preserved in libraries. Olivier III Lefèvre d'Ormesson (1616-1685), Councillor at the Parliament in 1636, then Master of the Requests and then Intendant, was the judge and reporter at the famous trial of the superintendent Nicolas Fouquet in 1662-1664. His impartiality during this trial (he saved the head of the accused, dismantling the plot that had been drawn up against him at the request of the King's council and refusing the death penalty that had been requested - he is credited with having replied to the monarch's envoys that "the Court renders judgments, not services") earned him a lasting disgrace. In 1664, he lost his stewardship of Picardy, and the king did not grant him the survivorship of his father as State Councillor, which had been promised to him, and which was attributed to M. Poncet, who had opted for Fouquet's death. With the three texts bound in afterwards, this manuscript was intended to be a collection of sources related to the trial and disgrace of Nicolas Fouquet, superintendent of finances under Louis XIV. Bound in afterwards: -Estat des taxes de la chambre de justice de tous ceux qui ont été employez dans les finances du temps de Monsieur Fouquet (8 ff). Monmerqué's note comments on this section. See Provenance below. -To Nosseigneurs de la Chambre de Justice (48 ff.), incipit, "Supplie humblement Nicolas Fouquet conseiller du roy en ses conseils... " -Sur le Crime de Leze Majesté (27 ff), copied in the same hand as d'Ormesson's first text. Provenance: Manuscript that belonged to Louis-Jean-Nicolas de Monmerqué (1780-1860), magistrate, literary scholar, bibliophile, and important collector of manuscripts. He contributed to the Bulletin du Bibliophile, which the bookseller-publisher Joseph Techener had founded with Charles Nodier in 1834. His stamp is found three times and a note in his hand on the verso of the second endpaper: "I found this MSS on 21 June 1845, I already had two of these Memoirs. The list of financiers which follows made me buy it. It shows that the heirs of Tallemant père were taxed at 400,000 by the Chambre de Justice, and the Rambouillet heirs at 600,000. This must have been one of the causes of the ruin of Tallemant des Réaux who had married his cousin Mlle Rambouillet" (signed M[onmerqué]). - A pencil note on the verso of the first endpaper suggests that on fol. 14 there may be corrections "in the hand of d'Ormesson".