PEACE AT ANY PRICE
[TREATIES.]
Volume of tracts on European treaties of peace and alliance.
Vienna and Amsterdam, 1725-1731.
10 items in 1 vol., 4to; overall very good in contemporary stiff vellum, green cloth ties to top-, tail-, and fore-edges of each board, ‘Trattati di pace’ inked to spine; a little wear to edges and worming to covers, endpapers renewed; some contemporary manuscript additions in a single elegant hand.
A collection of scarce texts relating to the Peace of Vienna (1725) and subsequent treaties of Hanover (1725), Paris (1727), Seville (1729), and Vienna (1731), with contemporary manuscript additions in Italian and French clearly composed by someone in diplomatic service. The collection eloquently attests to the shifting alliances and jostling for position among the major European powers in the 1720s.
The Peace of Vienna was a series of four treaties between Emperor Charles VI and Philip V of Spain which established an Austro-Spanish alliance, with the Habsburgs relinquishing all claims to the Spanish throne, the Spanish abandoning their claims to the Southern Netherlands, and Spain recognising the Ostend East India Company. In response, Britain, the Electorate of Hanover, France, and Prussia formed a defensive alliance by the Treaty of Hanover.
The 1727 Treaty of Paris followed Spain’s unsuccessful siege of Gibraltar, held by the British since 1704, and the 1729 Treaty of Seville formally ended the Anglo-Spanish War, with Spain restoring Britain’s commercial concessions and Britain agreeing to support Spanish claims in Italy. The 1731 Treaty of Vienna established an Anglo-Austrian alliance, with Britain guaranteeing Maria Theresa’s succession to the Habsburg dominions, and Charles VI agreeing to wind up the Ostend Company.
The volume ends with a manuscript copy, in Italian, of the Grand Duke of Tuscany’s assent to the Treaty of Vienna (an English translation was published in The Political State of Great-Britain Volume XLII for 1731).
Contents:
1. [VIENNA, Peace of.] Trattato di pace fra sua maestà cesarea reale cattolica l’imperatore Carlo VI, e sua maestà reale cattolica il re delle Spagne e dell’Indie Filippo V, concluso in Vienna il di 30 d’Aprile. Vienna, Gio. Pietro van Ghelen, [1725].
Pp. 22; text in 2 columns, title vignette, engraved initials, head- and tail-pieces; light damp-stain to fore-edge; with 2 pp. of manuscript notes at end headed ‘Articoli VI di pace conclusa il 30 Aprile 1725 fra l’imperatore Carlo VI ed il re delle Spagne Filippo V usciti alle publiche stampe sotto il p[ri]mo marzo 1727’. This edition not on OCLC.
2. [VIENNA, Peace of.] Trattato di commercio fra sua maestà cesarea reale cattolica l’imperatore Carlo VI, e sua maestà reale cattolica il re delle Spagne e dell’Indie Filippo V, concluso in Vienna il di 1 Maggio, 1725. Vienna, Giovan Pietro Schmalz, [1725].
Pp. 19, [1 (blank)]; text in 2 columns, title vignette, engraved initials and head-piece. This edition not on OCLC.
3. [VIENNA, Peace of.] Instrumentum pacis nominee sacrae caesareo-catholicae majestatis et sacri romani imperii ab una atque sacrae regio-catholicae majestatis ex altera partibus Viennae in Austria die 7 Junii A.C. 1725 signatum. [Vienna?], typis Joannis Jacobi Kürner, [1725].
Pp. [24]; engraved initials and head-piece; contemporary manuscript note in French to title regarding the treaty’s ratification. OCLC finds a single copy of this edition, at the Bodleian.
4. [VIENNA, Peace of.] Ratificatio caesarea [ratificatio Hispanica, ratificatio Hispanica articuli separate]. [S.l., s.n., 1725].
Pp. [8]; caption title, woodcut initials. OCLC finds one copy, at the Sachsische Landesbibliothek.
5. [HANOVER, Treaty of.] Suite des nouvelles d’Amsterdam. Du 2 Novembre 1725. Extrait du traité entre la France, la Grande-Bretagne et la Prusse, conclu à Herrenhausen le 3 Septembre 1725… Amsterdam, C.T. du Breuil, [1725].
Pp. [2]; caption title, woodcut initial.
6. [HANOVER, Treaty of.] Suite des nouvelles d’Amsterdam. Du 1er Janvier 1726. Traité de Hanover, tel qu’il a été couché par écrit et signé. Amsterdam, C.T. du Breuil, [1726].
Pp. [4]; caption title, woodcut initial.
7. [PARIS, Treaty of.] Suite des nouvelles d’Amsterdam. Du 13 Juin 1727. Articles préliminaires pour l’affermissement de la paix génerale, signez à Paris le 31 Mai 1727… Amsterdam, C.T. du Breuil, [1727].
Pp. [2]; caption title, woodcut initial.
8. [SEVILLE, Treaty of.] Suite des nouvelles d’Amsterdam. Du 24 Janvier 1730 … Voici les articles du traité de Seville… [Amsterdam, s.n., 1730].
Pp. [2]; caption title, woodcut initial.
9. [HANOVER, Treaty of.] Analyse du traité d’alliance, conclu à Hanover, entre leurs majestés tres-chretienne, Britannique et Prussienne, le 3 Septembre, 1725. [S.l., s.n., 1725].
Pp. 24; initial and head-piece. OCLC shows one copy in the US (Brigham Young University) and one in the UK (Bodleian).
10. [VIENNA, Treaty of.] Tractatus inter sacram caesaream catholicam, sacram catholicam, et sacram regiam Britannicam, majestates Viennae Austriae 22 mensis Julii die, anno 1731 conclusus. Vienna, typis Joannis Petri van Ghelen, [1731].
Pp. 15, [1 (blank)]; engraved initial and head-piece; with four and a half pp. of contemporary manuscript notes in Italian at the end, headed ‘Adesione del Gn. Da. Di Toscana’ and ending ‘Fatto a Vienna li 21 7bre 1731’. OCLC finds a single coy of this edition, at the Ostfriesische Bibliothek.
