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96 letters from Dutch diplomats throughout Europe, 1715-1729

[LETTERS - DIPLOMATIC].
[Official contemporary copies of incoming diplomatic correspondence to the Dutch government in The Hague from Dutch ambassadors, envoys, diplomatic residents and others in Vienna, Graz, Schaffhausen, Turin, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Moscow, Cologne, Frankfurt, Dresden, Regensburg, Warsaw, Grodno, Maastricht, The Hague, Brussels and Ostend].
[The Hague], letters dated 26 January-17 December 1715 and 7 November 1725-22 November 1729. Folio (32.5 x 20.5 cm). 96 letters clearly written in dark brown ink on paper, 84 in Dutch and 12 in French, mostly in a Latin hand (the Dutch ones from 1715 in a semi-gothic hand). Loose leaves in a modern portfolio. [96] letters ([138] written pp. on [97] ll.).
€ 8,500
A set of 96 letters from 20 Dutch diplomats throughout Europe, 52 in the year 1715 and 44 in the years 1725 to 1729, in copies made by the Dutch government as the letters came in. They give a remarkably detailed view of day to day activities in international diplomacy and local current events, forming a valuable primary source for any study of the period. A 1715 report from Turin gives information on troops in Malta, an 1728 report from Moscow ranges from the future Empress of Russia's pilgrimage on foot to a General setting off for Siberia to oversee the copper and iron mines, a 1729 report from Warsaw notes that they are warily keeping an eye on the Ottoman Porte in Constantinople. More than half the letters date from the year 1715, giving an extraordinary view of Europe in the aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession, in the year of Louis XIV's death and during the Ottoman-Venetian War.
Formerly folded. Two leaves show a small hole burned in the foot margin, a half dozen have an even smaller burn on the edge of the paper, and a few show very minor foxing, but still in very good condition. A wealth of material for political-historical, biographical and cultural-historical studies.
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