TRAVELS. J.J. MINYER. Autograph manuscript signed, Journal de mes voyages, 1756-1788; small in-4 volume (23x17.5cm) of 189pages (and 18 printed and colored plates), original parchment hardcover binding with drawstrings. Interesting diary of a young man's travels in France and Europe. The first page bears an expanded title: "Journal de mon voyage, depuis Nantes, jusqu'a Amsterdam en Hollande. Fait par mer en août l'an 1754. J.J. Minyer. Parti de la Martinique le 22 may 1750 & arrivé à Nantes le 27 juin d. par le navire Le Fleuron de Nantes de 250 thonneaux, 16 canons, & Cape Jacq. Berthommé"... Minyer describes his travels in 92 stages, meticulously recounting the towns and places visited, events, local customs, cultural life, the many stops at post houses, inns with accommodations and meals, etc. August 2-September 2, 1754: Nantes to Amsterdam (p.3); June 2-13, 1756: Amsterdam to Hamburg (p.13); June 16: Hamburg to Berlin (p.29); July 14: Amsterdam to Paris (p.59); Paris to Nantes (p.80); Recapitulation of cities (p.84); note on currency values (p.93); "Remarques historiques et géographiques tirées du Dictionnaire Universel de Mr Corneille" (p.94); November 6, 1757: Nantes to Lorient (p.156); "Lieues de France", calculation of distances covered, i.e. 981 leagues (p.168); "Principales hoberges des villes" (p.172); July 2, 1766: Nantes to Bordeaux (p.174); March 4-28, 1786: journey to Rennes (p.186); journey to Paris in 1788, with table and distance of stages (p.187). The highly legible manuscript is illustrated by the insertion of 18 colored folding engravings depicting the cities described: Nantes, The Hague, Amsterdam, Calais, Bremen, Berlin, Rotterdam, Mechelen, Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Dunkirk, Lille, Cambrai, Paris, Versailles, Rennes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux. Let's quote the beginning: "On the second of August, in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-four, at half past six in the evening, I set out from the town of Nantes, in Upper Brittany [...] I went down the Loire in a barge, in the company of Messrs Meckenhauser, & Richner; the former was in the office of my uncles Messrs Struykman frères, & the other was working on Mr Deucher's cellui. We disembarked at Migron, 4 leagues from Nantes; we went to the Lion d'or, a bad gite, without a bed, & deprived of all comodities. On Saturday 3 August, we left Le Migron at 3 ½ h. a.m. and disembarked at Painbœuff at 6 ½ h. a.m., & immediately went aboard the ship on which I was to make my voyage, named De Drie Zusters, Kape Sander van Leenstadt of Rotterdam, with a crew of eleven men, 8 cannons, & a harbor of about two hundred tons drawing 10 feet of water, belonging to M. Heerzeele freres of Rotterdam, this ship was freighted for Amsterdam. I dined that day at Rollin's, at the Hotel du brillant, and supped and slept on board, as I did every day thereafter". - On Monday August 5, the small brigantine La Fourmi visited Mr. Broudou and Gillard, of Nantes, on their way to the Coste de Guinée. N.B. This little brigantine, having left three weeks after us & on its way to trade its blacks in Africa, had the misfortune to be taken by a privateer from Morocco, & taken to Barbary. - Tuesday August 6th dined aboard Cap. Claas d'Hambourg, where we ate a pudding, & a piece of smoked beef"... Etc. On August 28, the ship, having run aground on a sandbank, moored in the port of Amsterdam: "the way of life there, the spirit of commerce which reigns there surpasses the imagination of a Frenchman, ever out of his country"... Let's mention the arrival in Bremen (June 7, 1756), "a large & very strong city [...] the houses there are very pretty & the basements of the houses are of a finished beauty, filled with glazing"; reception by the burgomaster in his garden... "we went to see the Stock Exchange, which is very little, we were also taken to the cathedral church, where the mummies can be seen in the vaults. The Jews are not suffered there, [...] they were obliged to pay one ducat per person each night they slept in the city. I must point out here the great politeness of the Bremen people, we were passing in a rented carriage, & each person who passed greeted us as they stopped, the ladies themselves through the windows made us great reverences"... The stay in Berlin (June 20-23, 1756) was marked by a trip to Potsdam, and a visit to the palace and the royal apartments; in the courtyard, Muyden saw Frederick II, "all alone without a lord at his side, in the midst of his soldiers giving them exercise or parade, the King had a blue suit with a silver brandebourg with a white cloth jacket & white buttons, a black leather cullotte & boots, a wig with a tail, a silver braided hat & the plumeet & an