WITH GILT-EMBOSSED ARMORIAL COAT OF ARMS ON BOTH COVERS OF PRINCE CONDÉ OF THE HOUSE OF BOURBON, GRANDE MAÎTRE DE FRANCE IN THE COURTS OF LOUIS XV AND LOUIS XVI

(LOUIS XV, HOUSE OF BOURBON) RAULIN, [Joseph]. Traité analytique des eaux minérales en générales… Fait par order du Gouvernement. Paris: Vincent, 1772. 12mo, contemporary full crushed red morocco, gilt-embossed arms of the House of Bourbon on covers, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, all edges gilt; pp. (i-iii), iv-xvi, (1)-356, (4). $3500.

First edition of a medical treatise by Raulin, who held the post of physician ordinary to Louis XV of France and authored such medical works at the official request of the French Court, a rare copy with the gilt-embossed armorial coat of arms of Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince Condé of the House of Bourbon. Condé held the preeminent post of Grand Maître de France in the courts of Louis XV and Louis XVI before the French Revolution forced him into exile.

Joseph Raulin was the “eminent… physician ordinary to King [Louis XV], and censor royal, and was aggregated to several literary societies in France, to the Arcadi at Rome, and the Royal Society of London. The French government employed him in drawing up several treatises on popular medical topics, which he wrote in a clear and neat style, and in a luminous method. Of these were…. Traite des maladies des femmes en couche, Traite analytique des eaux minerales en general [this work]” and other notable studies, primarily in obstetrics and gynecology (Aiken, et al., General Biography VIII:470). This work is among those in which Raulin “tried to classify the nervous disorders of the ladies he treated at the court of Louis XV… and used the expression of the period—vapors—to describe what would later be known as hysteria” (Bogousslavsky, Frontiers of Neurology, 7). A subsequent volume to this work was authored by Raulin and published in 1774. With woodcut engraved initials, head- and tailpieces. Text in French. Blake, 372. Contemporary gilt morocco binding with the gilt-embossed armorial coat of arms of Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince Condé (1736-1818) of the House of Bourbon, whose monarchs included Henry IV, Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI. Condé held a preeminent position in the courts of Louis XV and Louis XVI as Grand Maître de France. At the fall of the Bastille in the French Revolution he went into exile and avoided the fate met by Louis XVI and others of the Bourbon monarchy.

Text fresh with light scattered foxing, faintest embrowning to several leaves, minimal rubbing to bright gilt boards. An exceptional near-fine copy with an impressive provenance.