Baroque at the V&A, and more: This Week in The Court of the Sun King

.
Here's a Telegraph article on the Baroque exhibit at the V&A in London (previously mentioned). There is short but tasty video with it.

Novelist Catherine Delors (author of Mistress of the Revolution), who I consider an historian (as well as the lawyer she is, in fact), has started a series on the history of the Tuileries on her wonderful blog, Versailles and more: beautifully written and researched, as always.

The Black Nun of Moret

I was delighted to get an email from Lynn Nottage, author of the play Las Meninas, in response to my earlier post on the Queen's black baby.

She wrote:

I'd definitely welcome a conversation about the research I did for my play Las Meninas. The book that I found in the public library (the original copy), was translated into English in the early 1700's from Montespan's Memoir written in the late 1600's. It has been some years, but I will dig through my files and share what I found. If indeed Montespan didn't write the memoir, it is a highly imaginative and detailed account of the Queen's "black" child, detailing her birth, her childhood and her eventual placement
in a convent. I'd love to discuss. If it is an invention, I'd love to
know the reasons behind such an invention in the late 1600s and why this rumor turns up in so many accounts.

Regarding the Memoirs of Madame de Montespan (translated into English and available on-line), they are generally regarded as not, in fact, written by her, but I didn't know more so I turned, as so I often do, to the sage wisdom of Gary McCollim, who wrote:

As to the actual author of the so-called Mémoires of Madame de Montespan, the name generally given as the author is the Abbé Philippe Musoni. They were first published in 1829. This is according to Catherine Decours bibliography at the end of her pseudo-mémoires of La Montespan published in 2001 under the title Aimée du Roi. Jean-Christian Petitfils also includes this notation in his bibliography to his biography of La Montespan.

In my own bibliography, I had noted that these faux memoirs were “Written by Abbé L. Lafont d'Aussonne, d'après Quérard." Gary looked into this and reported back:

A brief search on the Internet reveals that Querard was an early nineteenth century writer who published a guide to writers in the nineteenth century including Lafont d'Ausonne. However, the listing of the books written by Lafont d'Ausonne does not include the memoirs of Madame de Montespan, although he did write a two volume history of Madame de Maintenon. Most of his work was on Marie Antoinette.

So: according to this, Abbé Philippe Musoni is likely the author, and the Memoirs were first published in 1829. This doesn't jive with the memoirs Lynn Nottage read, which were translated in the 1700s.

I did a deep search on the Net, and didn't come up with anything about Musoni or Lafont d'Aussonne, but Wikipedia does have an entry on Louise Marie-Therese (The Black Nun of Moret) which touches on a number of the theories.

(Image at left, Louise Marie-Therese.)

Faux memoirs are interesting historical documents because they frame a view of history as it was seen at that time. The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan are particularly interesting because, in parts, they are full of wit, humor and detail. I had the impression that the author must have been a member of the court. Who was the author -- and how did he or she get such detailed information? It's a mystery that I would love to see solved.

Since then, Lynn Nottage has written me again, giving me the references in the Montespan Memoirs. More on this anon ....

The Versailles exhibit

As Susan Scott, an author I mentioned in an earlier blog, pointed out to me: there are very few examples of 17th century Court dress in existence today. All the more extraordinary, then, this new exhibit at Versailles: Court pomp and royal ceremonies: court dress in Europe 1650-1800.

The fact that I'm one very big ocean -- and even bigger life -- away is somewhat torturous to me! It's on until June 28: I have that long to be very strongly tempted.

Here are the official links: at the Versailles site, the Exhibition site.

And here are some links to articles on it:

"Versailles exhibition recreates dazzle of court life"

"Exhibition at Versailles on dazzle of court life"

On Bells...

I post once a month to a group website, Hoydens and Firebrands; Roaring Ladies Who Write About The Seventeenth Century. This month my post was on bells. Why bells? you ask. You'll be surprised: read it here.

(Image at left: 17th century woodcut of men ringing bells. )

On enemas ...

.
In an earlier post, I mentioned the false allegations that 1) Louis XIV only bathed twice in his life, and 2) that he had 2000 enemas. Louis XIV did bathe, and although he had a monthly enema and bleeding (believed to expel bad humours), he certainly could not possibly have had 2000.

Gary McCollim, whom I often quote here, has this to say:

Your blog had a note on 30 March about an article claiming that Louis XIV only bathed twice in his life. Stanis Perez who has written a book entitled La Santé de Louis XIV (Champ Vallon, 2007) says that this story is often repeated and is not true (p. 241). The king often bathed on orders from his doctors whenever he was sick. As a youth he often went swimming in the rivers. An bath was installed at Versailles in 1672. I could go on, but the story never dies. His grandfather Henri IV, however, was known to smell like a goat because he rarely bathed but this too might be a false story.

The Enema, by Abraham Bosse

As to the number of enemas the king had, once a month he pris médecin. This meant a bleeding and an enema, what was called a lavement. Lavements were regularly prescribed for various illnesses. As to the number 2000, he would have to have lived 166 years to have one once a month or to have been ill many, many times. Whether he held court or received people or not, he continued his regular activities on these days. Everyone at court knew that the king was taking his medicine on these days.

Saint-Simon tells a story that the duchesse de Bourgogne, the favorite of the king and Maintenon, actually had an enema inserted while she was in the presence of the king and Maintenon. Maintenon was shocked, according to Saint-Simon, but the story left me with the impression that this was some sort of thrill for the youth of that day to see how long they could....... Kind of like kids today and glue sniffing or whatever.

I've read the story of the duchesse de Bourgogne before, and the logistics of the act perplex me. I've also read an account of a woman who liked her lover to give her enemas rather too often. Clearly, there is more to this than we know!

Dream it, and it will come

.
In Mistress of the Sun, I created a locked cabinet in which Athénaïs kept her secrets. Now, it appears, that such a cabinet has been found. "Secrets of rare Louis XIV cabinet unlocked," an article in the U.K. Telegraph, reports the discovery of an ornate cabinet — the only surviving furniture from Louis XIV's Versailles. It is thought to have belonged to Athénaïs because it is decorated with the flower and animal images dear to her. Not many pieces of furniture have survived from the Baroque era, and this is one — made of ebony, marble, and bronze guilt, and encrusted with semi-precious stones — is one of the most opulent.

Most of the drawers are locked, so it was definitely a place where she might have kept something precious ... or secret (such as love powders and spells).


This cabinet, along with other examples of Baroque style furnishings, will be shown in an exhibition at the V&A museum in London April 4 to July 19: Baroque 1620 - 1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence. I wish I could be there, but the V&A website for the show is a visual treat, in an of itself.

(Shown here: a mirror from the V&A show. Mirrors painted with flowers and other motifs were first used in Italy during the Baroque period.)

A wonderful on-line book store for historians

.
I have had dealings with Susanne Alleyn for some time. I don't know how I discovered Tricolour books, an on-line bookstore specializing in French history, but once there, I was hooked. I found something enticing in every mailing. When the time came for me to sell my own beloved collection of Napoleonic books (to make room for books on the Court of the Sun King), I felt good about going to Susanne.

Since that time Tricolour books has changed: they are now Academy Book Store and have a nifty on-line catalogue. Anyone with an interest in history — French history, in particular, although not exclusively — will find lots there of interest.

When Susanne Alleyn isn't selling books, she's writing them. She's the author of a wonderful series of mysteries set during the French Revolution. Her newest novel is The Cavalier of the Apocalypse, due out from St. Martin's Press July 21, 2009.