Les quatre ages de la Pairie de France [...].

2 vol., 8vo: viii-381, viii-355 pp. (some min. browning).

Contemp. marbled calf, gilt-orn. spines, red leather title label, red edges.

First edition by the Alsatian magistrate Götzmann (1729-1794). One of the historical works to which the Alsatian had to devote himself, once the outcome of the famous trial which opposed him to Beaumarchais had forced him to renounce his functions. The work explains the Peerage of France (Prairie de France), a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 in the Middle Ages. The Pairs enjoyed above all symbolic privileges, notably in the plenary sessions of the Parliament of Paris, and did not constitute a special Order of the nobility as in other European countries.
Ref. Saffroy I:9076. - BnF.