REYRAC (François-Philippe de Laurens, abbé de). - Lot 124

REYRAC (François-Philippe de Laurens, abbé de). Poésies tirées des Saintes Écritures, dédiées à Madame la Dauphine. Paris, Delalain [De l'Imprimerie de Couret de Villeneuve], 1770. In-8, red morocco, triple gilt fillet, central coat of arms, ornate smooth spine, black title page, interior roulette, blue moiré silk lining and endpapers, gilt edges (period binding). First edition, with frontispiece portrait of Marie-Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria and Dauphine of France, copper-engraved by Hubert after D'Avenne. It was printed by the Orléans printer Couret de Villeneuve. The verses celebrating God's Triumph over the Enemies of His People are strikingly prophetic when associated with the events of the Revolution and the tragic fate of the future queen and her entourage: Tu meurs enfin, Tyran superbe, [....] Blood floods your Provinces; / Death reaps its Princes; / From the Throne they pass to the tomb: / Your vile treasures are plundered, / And your sons delivered to the slaughter, / Have their throats cut in the cradle (pp. 2-3). A fine copy, one of the few in large, strong paper, in morocco with the arms of Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval (1715-1789). Lieutenant-General of the King's armies, he served in the Austrian army during the Seven Years' War and contributed greatly to the improvement and modernization of French artillery by developing an artillery system that bears his name.