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a book open to a page with writing on itan old book sitting on top of a white table next to a white wallan open book with writing on it sitting on top of a tablean old book with writing on it and a picture of a horse
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184 - [Normandy – LALLEMANT DE MAUPAS (Xavier Richard Félix, abbot…
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Estimate €2,000 - €2,500
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Description
[Normandy – LALLEMANT DE MAUPAS (Xavier Richard Félix, abbot)]. Memorandum by the deputies of the clergy and the nobility of the province of Normandy, in the form of observations on the reply from the officials of the Bailiwick of Rouen and other jurisdictions. Sl [Rouen], undated [1770]. Manuscript in-4 (22 x 29 cm) in brown ink, comprising (10)-251-(3) pp., 28 lines per page, fawn calfskin, smooth, decorated spine, title labels in red morocco leather, double gilt fillet framing the covers, gilt edges (contemporary binding) Memoir by Abbé Lallemant: A defence of the privileges of the clergy and the nobility in Normandy under Louis XV. Written around 1770 by Abbé Richard-Xavier-Félix Lallemant, this treatise defends the prerogatives of the clergy and the nobility against the officers of the bailiwick of Rouen. Drawing on the principles of Montesquieu, it contributed to the confirmation of their privileges in the municipal assemblies by the Letters Patent of 22 February 1770. An unpublished manuscript, but one that has been preserved and studied. The memorandum was never printed, but several handwritten copies were made at the time, one of which is held at the Bibliothèque Mazarine under the title: ‘Prerogatives and Dignity of the Clergy, the Nobility and the Magistracy’. Memoir by the deputies of the clergy and the nobility of the province of Normandy in the form of observations on the response from the officials of the Bailiwick of Rouen and other jurisdictions. In addition to his political activities, Richard-Xavier-Félix Lallemant was a prolific author, notably translating Phaedrus’s Fables in 1779. Exiled to England during the French Revolution, he returned to Rouen following the reorganisation of the Rouen Academy, which he presided over once more until his death in 1810. Abbé Lallemant’s treatise remains a striking example of the social tensions under the Ancien Régime and a testament to the intellectual effort to defend a political and social order in the process of transformation. Although this controversy was of secondary importance at the time, it can be seen as a prelude to the major upheavals that would mark the end of the 18th century. (See Gaston Lavalley, Catalogue des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Municipale de Caen, 1880, no. 88.)
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About the sale MONTIGNAC – 31st BOOK SALE – Day 1 of 4 – Nos. 1 to 549
Auction location
Auction time 08/19/2026 at 11:00 AM
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