Tauxier Robert (1 results)

HORSE-TRADING IN THE STREETS OF 17TH-CENTURY PARIS. Large folio [52.7 x 41.2 cm]. Woodcut arms of Louis XIV and large woodcut initial. Very well-preserved; slightly toned at center-fold, otherwise a broad-margined, excellent copy. Docketed on verso in an early hand: "Rüe Guerinboisseau / Marchands de Cheveaux". Splendid, unrecorded printed edict against horse-trading in the streets of Paris in 1697, intended to be posted on the walls of public places and "broadcast in a loud and intelligible voice". The text notes concerning reports to the police by "several shopkeepers and residents of the Rue Guerinboisseau" [2e arrondissement], who are now afraid to leave their homes for fear of being knocked over by a horse if they venture outside. It is claimed that horse-traders and their servants "attempt almost every day to sell their horses" and gallop them up and down the street, to the general inconvenience of the residents and of the public road. One particularly guilty horse-trader is named ("Fauveau") and the penalty is described as the confiscation of said horses and a 100 livre fine plus interest and fees. The edict is dated Friday, 22 November 1697, and a post-script announces that on the 31st December 1697, "The Ordinance above has been read and broadcast in a loud and intelligible voice by the sound of trumpets and the public Crier, in all of the usual public places so that no-one can plead the cause of ignorance". * unrecorded in OCLC and the Catalog Collectif de France.