Add MS 46401

HENRI, COMTE DE BOULAINVILLIERS (b. 1658, d. 1722): 'Idée d'un sistème général', a copy of the first of Boulainvilliers's works (f. 366) composed in 1683 (f. 3); early 18th cent. Prefaced (ff. 2-6) by an introduction, addressed 'A Mon fils ainé', dated Saint-Saire, 6 Feb. 1710 (perhaps an error for 1700 as Etienne Henri, eldest son of Boulainvilliers, was killed in 1709, see Renée Simon's bibliography of Boulainvilliers, A la recherche d'un homme et d'un auteur, Paris [1941], p. 9), and followed (ff. 364-388b) by the author's commentary, 'Notes Sur le Premier traité du monde', ending imperfectly in the present MS. but dating from 1700 according to R. Simon, pp. 358-359 (see below). Two other MSS. of the work are known: MS. Vire A.60 and MS. Paris, Chambre des Députés 231 (see Catalogue générale des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France, Départements, x, 1889, p. 428, no. 72; Paris. Chambre des Députés, 1907, p. 123, no. 231). The work is fully described by Renée Simon, Henry de Boulainviller, Paris [1941], pp. 358- 417, with many quotations from the Vire MS. Paper; ff. iii + 389. Quarto. Early XVIII cent. Binding of brown leather with gold tooling on spine. Bookplate (f. i ) of Dr James Bonar, the political economist (cf. Add. MS. 41621 A, f. ii), with the note 'From E. P. Jacobsen 17.4.02'. Pencil annotations in several mainly 19th-cent. hands (but including one by Bonar, f. iii) are on ff. iii, iiib, 3, 5, 388b, 389. On f. ii is the 18th-cent. note 'Cab. J. 5. G. 6', possibly in the same hand as the marginal note on f. 226. Transferred from the Department of Printed Books