77 - [COURTILZ DE SANDRAS (Gatien de)]. Memoirs of Sir Jean-Baptiste de La Fontaine, Knight, Lord of Savoie and Fontenai, Brigadier and Inspector General of the King’s Armies. Cologne, Pierre Marteau, 1699. 12mo, [4] leaves, 471 pp., [12] leaves. Havana calfskin, decorated ribbed spine, title page, gilded coat of arms on the covers (contemporary binding). Ex-libris of Rob. de Billy.

[COURTILZ DE SANDRAS (Gatien de)]. Memoirs of Sir Jean-Baptiste de La Fontaine, Knight, Lord of Savoie and Fontenai, Brigadier and Inspector General of the King’s Armies. Cologne, Pierre Marteau, 1699. 12mo, [4] leaves, 471 pp., [12] leaves. Havana calfskin, decorated ribbed spine, title page, gilded coat of arms on the covers (contemporary binding). Ex-libris of Rob. de Billy. First edition of these apocryphal memoirs attributed to Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (1644–1712), a former musketeer and prolific writer, a master of the art of pseudo-historical memoirs, and best known for his *Mémoires de M. d’Artagnan* (1700), which provided Alexandre Dumas with the material for *The Three Musketeers*. Under the name Jean-Baptiste de La Fontaine, an officer in the armies of Louis XIV, Courtilz de Sandras composes here a tale of adventures blending historical events, military intrigues, and romantic episodes. Binding bearing the coat of arms of Louis de VERJUS, Count of Crécy (1629–1709), diplomat, member of the Academy, and Councilor of State. (O.H.R. 1865.)