8-ARGENSON (René-Louis de Voyer de Paulmy d'). Mémoires et Journal inédit, du Marquis d'Argenson, Ministre des affaires étrangères sous Louis XV. Pub. and annotated by M. le marquis d'Argenson. Paris, P. Jannet, 1857-1858, 5 vol. in-12, blue morocco, ribbed spine, framed with cold-stamped fillets in the centre ribbons, cold-stamped fillet on the sides, crowned monogram at the corners, double gilt fillet on the edges, interior lace, gilt head (Capé). First "complete" edition of d'Argenson's memoirs. René-Louis de Voyer, Marquis d'Argenson (1694-1757), son of the famous Lieutenant General of Police of Paris under Louis XIV, was one of the most enlightened statesmen of his time. His Considérations sur le gouvernement de la France, published posthumously, was read in manuscript by Voltaire, with whom he was closely associated. His memoirs are one of the best surviving sources on political and literary life during the reign of Louis XV, and a veritable work of political philosophy. The Journal d'Argenson, or rather his notes, existed in manuscript form in the Louvre library in 56 volumes. A first edition in one in-8 volume, curiously published in the Collection des Mémoires sur la Révolution Française, was first published in 1825, an edition so incomplete and reworked as to be unusable for historians. His descendant, already at the origin of this first publication, undertook to publish a "complete" edition of his ancestor's memoirs in the erudite Bibliothèque Elzévirienne collection published by Jannet. Another edition, contemporary with this one, was published under the aegis of the Société de l'Histoire de France from 1859 to 1867. This one, too, is not complete, but benefits from a good critical apparatus. It should be noted that hopes of a truly complete edition of the memoirs were dashed by the fire of the Commune. These two editions are therefore complementary, one not replacing the other. A fine copy with the cipher of Henri d'Orléans, Duc d'Aumale (1822-1897), HO crowned with three fleurs-de-lis in the O Spine a little faded.