Tea at Trianon: Madame de Lamballe's Library

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Madame de Lamballe's Library

Contrary to the legend that she was an air-head, Marie-Antoinette's friend the Princesse de Lamballe was a well-read lady. She enjoyed literature as well as popular novels, and was interested in serious social concerns. From Reading Treasure:

Coutau-Begarie is hosting a fantastic auction with several hundred French historical pieces this week; among the letters and relics are several books from the library of the princesse de Lamballe. The books being auctioned are primarily major works by Italian authors. Whenever possible, I have provided a link to an English translation.

La Secchia Rapita (The Rape of the Bucket) by Alessandro Tassoni [English translation]

La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) by Dante [English translation]

Il Pastor Fido (The Faithful Shepherd) by Giovanni Battista Guarini [English translation]

Ricciardetto by Niccolò Forteguerri [English translation]

Il Congresso di Citera (The Congress of Cythera) by Francesco Algarotti [English translation]

Orlando Furioso (The Frenzy of Orlando) by Ludovico Ariosto [English translation]

La Gerusalemme LIberta (The Jerusalem Delivered) by Tasso Torquato [English translation]

Il Morgante by Luigi Pulci [English translation]

Opere (Works) by Niccolo Machiavelli [English translation]

Il Malmantile Racquistato by Lorenzo Lippi

Le Rime by Franceso Petrarca

Aminta Favola Boscareccia by Tasso Torquato

Il Toracchione Desolato by Bartolomeo Corsini

(Read more.)