[LOUIS XIV]. Manuscript, Louis XIV, [18th century]; 416 pages in-4, bound in contemporary ivory vellum, title page on spine. Life of Louis XIV, copied from several hands, with glosses and some bibliographical references in the margins. The history of the reign of Louis XIV is recounted year by year, with the vintage rubricated at the top of each page; a last booklet brings a "Supplement" of some passages to insert. "The reign of Louis XIV, which I am beginning, is the longest, the busiest of wars and negotiations, the most fertile in great men of all kinds and the most fecund in famous events of which it is spoken in history, if one excepts the reign of Augustus which has great relations with that of Louis XIV. The birth of this prince, who came into the world after a sterile marriage of 23 years, was considered as miraculous, and as an extraordinary gift from heaven. This is why he was given the nickname of God-given. He had this singularity in his birth that he was born with teeth. [...] I beg the reader to observe that in this history one will only be attached to the principal facts and to the great military and political events which can serve as instruction to the young people and advise them the love of the virtue, the arts and the fatherland "... Ex-libris Library of Th. de Jonghe [founding member of the Belgian Bibliophile Society, Th. de Jonghe built up an important collection of books and manuscripts, devoted to the history of the Netherlands, heraldry, genealogy and numismatics; his library was sold from November 1860 to February 1861].