Catalogue Number 12 - Susanne Schulz-Falster

introduction into the principles of emphyteusis, a long-term rental contract
of land, which allowed the peasant the use of land for many years or even in
perpetuity, on the condition that he maintained and improved the land and
paid annually a low rent in money or kind. He shows the commercial
beneWts of the land reform of 1769, based on the law on mortmain, passed
in that year, which decreed that the State would control the transfer of
property to the Church by private individuals. The idea was to guarantee
the widespread number of small and medium peasant properties a greater
productive stability, and at the same time enable long term emphyteutical
tenants to acquire possession of the land.
Fierli accompanies his observations with detailed reference to the relevant
legal literature. His treatise was well received, reprinted the following
year and again in 1805.
Fierli (1744–1807) a practising lawyer and administrator, published extensively
on legal matters, and compiled comprehensive works on juridical
decisions.
DBI 47, p. 423; OCLC/RLIN list just two copies of the original, at the University
of Louisiana and Kansas, and two copies of the reprint of 1805 at Harvard and the
Library of Congress.
Extravagant Expenses
30 [FRANCE.] Maison du Roi, ce qu’elle étoit, ce qu’elle est, ce
qu’elle devroit être. Examen soumis au Roi, et à l’Assemblée
Nationale. Paris, 1789. £1550
4to, pp. viii, 166, 1, with 8 large folding, printed tables; heraldic title
vignette, and decorative headpiece; contemporary full sheep, with
central arms of the Bute family to both side, sides with decorative gilt
scroll, spine ruled in gilt, gilt-lettered spine label; some surface scratches
to upper board; a Wne copy.
First and apparently only edition of this detailed investigation into the
Wnances of the French royal household, the Maison du Roi, on the eve of the
French Revolution. The anonymous author identiWes immense luxury, extravagant
expenses, and the large danger of venality in the traditional organisation
of the Royal Household. He gives a brief account of earlier
attempts at reforming the ever-increasing expenditure of the Royal Household,
most notably under Colbert, followed by those of 1780, 1787 and
1788. In individual chapters all manner of oYces within the Maison du Roi
are described, with fascinating detail of opulence and expenditure. These
range from oYces de la bouche or royal kitchens, with detailed accounts of
foodstuVs, meat, wine, purchased, to salaries for kitchen and serving staV,
all in extreme detail, to the oYce de la chambre, the bedchamber and wardrobe.
The large printed tables are a veritable mine of information for data
on food fashions and prices, and at the same time of social etiquette. The
comparative tables and the accompanying text indicate that major attempts
at economies and cost-cutting had already been made, but further Wnancial
restrictions were deemed necessary, and the anonymous author suggest the
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue twelve
institution of an independent accounts department to limit Royal expenditure
both in Versailles and in Paris. In a Wnal note he seems to accept a
certain degree of opulence, as beWts the major Royal court in Europe.
According to a note at the end, a second independent publication on the
military part of the Maison du Roi, the Maison Militaire du Roi, was to follow,
which was published in 1790.
Monglond I, 179; Martin & Walter (Anonymes) 9319; Tourneux III, 12451; not
in Kress or Goldsmiths’, OCLC lists just one copy at Florida State University.
31 [FRANCE – LISTE DES EMIGRÉS.] Bulletin des Demandes
en Radiation de la Liste des Emigrés [No. 1 – No. 13]. [colophon:]
Paris, de l’Imprimerie de la République, Brumaire an VI ... Prairal
an VII [October/November 1797 – May/June 1799]. £1500
Thirteen issues bound in one volume, 8vo, pp. 17, [3] blank; 35, [1]
blank; 33, [3] blank; 29, [3] blank; 31, [1] blank (tear); 25, [3] blank;
23, [1] blank; 35, [1] blank; 27, [1] blank; 29, [3] blank; 15, [1] blank;
15, [1] blank; 21, [3] blank; 23, [1] blank; uncut and partly unopened,
bound in contemporary brown-stained half cloth, over tan paste-paper
boards, printed orange spine label, with numbering amended from I–XI
to 13; traces of lateral folding to some issues, some title pages a little
dust-soiled, paper fault to A14 of issue 5, no loss; a Wne set.