39 - GRAFFIGNY Françoise d'Issembourg d'Happoncourt, Lady of [Nancy, 1695 – Paris, 1758], woman of letters, author of *Lettres d'une jeune péruvienne*.

GRAFFIGNY Françoise d'Issembourg d'Happoncourt, Lady of [Nancy, 1695 – Paris, 1758], woman of letters, author of *Lettres d'une jeune péruvienne*. Collection of letters: - Autograph letter to her “Dear Panpan” [M. de Vaux]; Lunéville, 1737; 3½ pages, in-4°, mounted on a folio sheet. A very beautiful letter in which she recounts her last meeting—or rather, her last confrontation—with her husband, Huguet de Graffigny, whose brutality had forced her into a separation. “I cannot refrain from recounting in detail a scene during which I very seriously thought I might die. Last Tuesday, I was alone at such-and-such an hour in the evening; all of a sudden I saw him enter, his eyes wild, his tone—ah! What a tone! (Du Frene would never have gone so far as that) [...] he said to me: ‘It’s over, madam; I shall never see you again; I have just sealed my departure.’" She was so shaken that she still suffers from a stitch in her side, after experiencing terrible fainting spells. She has composed a ballet that Léopold Desmarest (the musician’s son) will show to La Bruère (author of the opera *Dardanus*, with music by Rameau). She also mentions Tavannes, the old man (Mr. du Chatelet), etc. She advises him to blur “his signature” because letters are opened at the post office. Other people are referred to by the names Iris and Love. - Autograph document signed “Duchesne,” bookseller in Paris, with a four-line autograph addition signed by Françoise Graffigny. July 25 and December 26, 1750; 1 1/4 pages, in-4° mounted on folio-sized paper. In it, she sells her play *Cénie* to the bookseller Duchesne for 2,000 livres. Provenance: A. Bovet collection.