175 - LE MOINE, Pierre-Camille. History of the Antiquities of the City of Soissons.

LE MOINE, Pierre-Camille. History of the Antiquities of the City of Soissons. First edition in a binding bearing the coat of arms. From the library of Norbert Deviolaine. Paris, Published by Vente, Bookseller to the King’s “Menus Plaisirs,” 1771. 2 tomes in 2 volumes, in-12 (171 x 98 cm), each bound in brown morocco, with a smooth spine from the period decorated with small gilt metalwork, title and volume number labels in red leather, the back covers of morocco leather adorned with a triple gilt fillet as a frame, featuring delicate fleurons at the corners and embossed in the center with a large count’s coat of arms, a gilt interior frieze, endpapers and half-leather endcaps of marbled paper covered with a patinated copper-colored gilding, gilded fillet with cut-out patterns, guilloché caps, gilt edges. 3 unnumbered folios, XLIV and 202 pp.; 2 unnumbered folios, 260 pp., 1 unnumbered folio (approval). Minor scuffing on the bindings, mainly at the corners; replaced covers; rare foxing; paper missing from the lower corner of page 53 of the first volume (without affecting the text). First edition of this monumental history of Soissons, written by Pierre-Camille Le Moine (1723–1800), archivist, equerry, and coat bearer to the King. The work, dedicated to the Dauphin (the future Louis XVI), explores the city’s origins, its Gallo-Roman ramparts, its medieval charters, and its abbeys (Saint-Jean-des-Vignes, Notre-Dame). It is brimming with romantic chronicles, recounting the Merovingian intrigues surrounding Queen Brunehaut, the assassination of Chilperic I in 584, and, in the second volume, the region’s military history, including the strategic construction of the Fort de Roucy on the Aisne by Count Reinold and Duke Hugh’s defeat at the hands of the valiant people of Soissons. On the endpapers are engraved bookplates by Norbert Deviolaine (1807–1867), a bibliophile from Soissons. A wet monogram stamp appears on the title pages. A fine copy in a binding bearing the coat of arms.