8vo. viii, 174pp. Terminal leaf a cancel. Interleaves between p.48-49. Handsomely bound in nineteenth-century gilt-tooled green half- morocco, gilt armorial device of Richard Seymour-Conway, fourth Marquess Hertford (1800-1870) to spine, marbled paper boards, marbled edges, marbled endpapers. A trifle dulled. Early French language notes, in two distinct hands, to initial and terminal fly-leaves and interleaved blank.

'Tout ce que raconte Madame la Marquise de Caylus est vrai; on voit une femme qui parle avec candeur. Ses Souvenirs serviront surtout à faire oublier cette foule de misérables écrits sur la cour de Louis XIV dont l'Europe a été inondée par des auteurs faméliques, qui n'avaient jamais connu ni cette cour ni Paris'.

The second state, issued the same year as the first, of the lively memoirs of Marthe-Marguerite de Caylus (1673-1729) that provide a piquant account of the intrigues of the inner court of Louis XIV. The work was edited for publication by Voltaire, who supplied the preface and contextual notes. The manuscript additions in this work are concerned with Voltaire's editorship of the text.