Sup[p]lément à l’histoire du gouvernement de Venise.

Frédéric Léonard, Paris, 1677

Probably a pirated copy of the original edition published by Léonard. Printed without the frontispiece showing St Mark’s Square.

Description: Contemp. vellum, spine lettered in ink. Vigesimo-quarto: 14 × 8 cm; pp.: 211, [2].

Provenance: Bookplate “Libro Liber. G H”.

Ref.: BSB: 10882446, 10882435

Condition: Covers slightly dusty and with some spotting, spine title faded. Joints and endpapers in very good condition. Ink notations in a later hand on the history of this edition to front flyleaf. Pages slightly browned due to age, occasional small stains. Top edge a little dusty, small stain to fore edge and lower edge.

Notes: Around 1669, Amelot de La Houssaye (1634–1706) was appointed legation secretary to the French ambassador in Venice. From this period he drew the information for his Histoire du gouvernement de Venise, an unsparing description of the political constitution of the city-state, published in Paris in 1676. After the publication, the outraged protests of the Venetian ambassador led to La Houssaye being imprisoned in the Bastille. The scandal surrounding La Houssaye helped the work to become very popular, so that he published a second edition with additions in 1677. The Supplément à l’histoire du gouvernement de Venise provoked further protests from Venice, so that the edition was finally banned in France. But even this ban only led to a greater demand for the book, so that it was subsequently reprinted in secret. The note ‘Sur la Copie’ on the title page, but also the comparison of the types of printing used, suggests that the present edition was not printed by Léonard in Paris.