Lettres du style nouveau, pour excuser un silence [manuscript], 1660.

110 leaves ; 17 x 13 cm

Collection of model letters on every conceivable subject likely to be of use in polite society. A handful of formal letters deal with specific occasions, and at the end are some aphorisms, such as "Cinq maison redoutables, la prison, le Bordel, la Taverne, la maison de l'usurier, l'hospital."

Dedication on leaves [5r-8r] (recto only) is inscribed, "A Hault et puissant Seigneur Richard Corbett: Cheualier Anglois," followed by several pages of laudatory prose demonstrating the high regard in which Corbett was held in France and signed, "Mons de Vostre treshumble et tres obëyssant seruiteur Lefevre / A Orleans ce 20 Mars 1660."

Corbett evidently brought the manuscript back to England and he, or his descendants, made use of some of the blank versos to record the purchase of books and make notes on estate management, ca. 1696-1699; the books cover a wide range of interests, from The Cornish comedy to A model of an Engin for raising of great quantities of watter, and seem to have been purchased in the 1690s.

In French and English.

[8], 100, [4] leaves.

Title from caption on leaf 1.

Corbett most likely seems to be Sir Richard Corbert of Leighton who died in 1685.

Bound in vellum wrapped boards with remains of yellow and purple silk ties and manuscript waste.

Formerly Folger MS Add 861.

Acquired from Grinke & Burmester, February 1985, catalog 1:56.

France -- Orléans.
Great Britain -- England.

V.a.571

MS Add 861