Abrégé Méthodique de l’Histoire de France – Brianville – Third Edition, Paris 1675

A handsome seventeenth-century French history compendium, presented in an elegant period binding. Abrégé Méthodique de l’Histoire de France, pour Monseigneur le Dauphin was composed by Honoré Carel de Sainte-Garde (writing as M. de Brianville, Abbé de Saint Benoît de Quinçay lez Poitiers) and dedicated to the Dauphin of France — Louis, son of Louis XIV. This is the third edition, published in Paris by Charles de Sercy in 1675.

The work is a methodical chronological survey of French dynastic history, illustrated with engraved portraits, heraldic devices, and coins of the French monarchs from the earliest kings to the reign of Louis XIV. The frontispiece bears a heraldic engraving with the device Mont Joye, St. George.

Bound in sprinkled calf leather over boards, with a five-raised-band spine richly gilt with floral ornaments and the title HIST. DE FRANCE tooled in gold. The binding is worn as expected for its age — boards show rubbing, cracking, and surface loss — but the book block is complete and intact. The text pages are present without loss.

An English heraldic bookplate is affixed to the front paste-down, bearing the motto Bonne et Belle Assez, indicating the volume passed into an English private library during the eighteenth century. A manuscript ownership signature (‘Fowler’) is inscribed on the title page, adding further provenance interest.

A rare survivor of French royal court culture: a reference work commissioned for the education of the Sun King’s heir, in an original gilt-spine binding with documented English provenance.