Between the Covers

Folio. 12 laid paper leaves hand stitched, paper spine. Title in manuscript on the first leaf, followed by 21 manuscript pages (foliated 1, 2, 2, 3 – 10). In fine condition with light rubbing to the edges of the first leaf, housed in a period-style quarter leather and cloth box with gilt-stamped rounded-spine and inner chemise. An original manuscript of this celebrated attack on French Finance Minister Jacques Necker, arguably the most powerful man in France before the Revolution. Written surreptitiously by Philippe Henri de Grimoard, an important military officer and trusted counselor to Louis XVI, the letter was published in the guise of an open letter between two prominent intellectuals: from the anti-Enlightenment writer Louis-Antoine Caraccioli to Jean d’Alembert, co-editor of the *Encyclopédie*.

As Director-General of Finance from 1776-1783 Necker controlled all of France’s wealth. In February 1781 he published his famous work: *Compte rendu au roi* the first public accounting of the royal finances of the French monarchy. This, along with his reforming policies, made him many enemies, including Marie Antoinette. The stage was thus set for this “witty and well informed” public attack, in which Necker is made to appear as a kind of magician of politics and finance, capable of “mystifying the whole French nation,” and guilty of “suppressions without reimbursements, reforms without profit, loans without limit or measure … .”

As to whether this is the original manuscript or a compositor’s copy, we cannot say with certainty. It is neatly written in a beautiful hand on the most expensive paper of the day. We know of only one record of the manuscript, in an 1880 *Index to the Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum*. An historically important manuscript, housed in a handsome drop-spine box.

Item #400140