Those of us who between November 5 and December 5, 1999 visited the impressive exhibition at Fort St. Angelo, Fine Bookbindings from the National Library of Malta and the Magistral Palace and Archives, Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Rome must have noticed that four exhibits bore on their cover the name: LE BAILLI DE BRETEUIL. The catalogue describes one of them, Hermes Megistus' De Sapientia Generationis Lapidis, "manuscript on vellum - 17th century. Brown morocco. The cover is decorated with three frames of double fillets which enclose a panel with a sun tooled at the centre and four roses at the corners. LE BAILLI DE BRETEUIL was tooled later when the book came into his possession. The frames are linked at the corners by a double fillet and a fleur-de-lys. Spine with six single raised bands.   Compartments decorated with the symbols of the sun, the fleur-de-lys and the rose.   Gilt edges." As Maroma Camilleri says in her contribution in the same catalogue entitled Manuscript Volumes, this manuscript, marked Cod. XIV, "being a treatise on alchemy, the front and back panels are decorated with representations of the sun, the fleur-de-lys and the rose, symbols - according to alchemists - of light and of philosophic gold." It is dated on the last page:  3462 finis anno mundi.

Jacques-Laure le Tonnelier de Breteuil was born on February 9, 1723. His father, Claude-Charles, comte de Breteuil, had married Laure O'Brien de Clare, whose grandparents were Irish Catholics who had followed the deposed English king James II into exile at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. On her father's side, Laure was a descendent of Brien Boron, nicknamed "the Irish Charlemagne", who was the first ruler to unify Ireland in 1002. Jacques-Laure was received in the Langue of France on May 25, 1736, as a page of Grand Master Vilhena. On February 19, 1750, the son of James II, James Stuart the Pretender, wrote a letter from Rome to the Grand Master recommending that Jacques-Laure be appointed captain of a galley. Five months later, in another letter dated July 14, the Pretender thanked the Grand Master for "the promises you made me in your letter of the May 23 in favour of chevalier de Breteuil." In fact, Jacques-Laure was appointed captain of the galley Santa Caterina on October 14, 1752. On July 21, 1758 he was appointed ambassador of the Order to the Holy See and his first public audience with Pope Clement XIII took place on the Sunday in albis of 1759. He remained in this office until 1777, when Grand Master Rohan appointed him ambassador of the Order in Paris. It was during his tenure of office that, in 1781, the Order of Saint-Antoine de Viennois was merged with the Order of St. John.

The Breteuil family originated from Norman chiefs whose exploits are lost in legend. Roger of Normandy was nicknamed l'Anthropophage (the Cannibal) by the Saracens  who were terrified by him when he accompanied Robert the Devil on an expedition to the Holy Land in 1035. His grandson William was made Count of Breteuil by William the Conqueror who, after the Battle of Hastings, created him also Count of Hereford. On June 10, 1476, Agnes, the last descendant of the Breteuils, married Jean le Tonnelier.   The house of le Tonnelier de Breteuil was thus founded. It gave France councillors to kings, marshals and officers in high positions, an abbé, two bishops, ambassadors, a female scientist and writer and three ministers, one to Louis XIV and two to Louis XV. Louis-Auguste, baron de Breteuil, the most famous of these three, left his mark on European politics of his time, first as ambassador of France to Russia, then in Stockholm, in Naples and finally in Vienna, where he was to distinguish himself for maintaining peace in Europe. War had already broken out between Prussia and Austria on the succession of Bavaria, after the death of Prince Elector Maximilian Joseph on December 30, 1777. The mediation offered by the baron de Breteuil on behalf of France and by Prince Repnin on behalf of Russia during two months of negotiations bore its fruit:  the Peace of Teschen was signed on May 13, 1779. According to the present marquis de Breteuil:  "The Teschen Treaty has an important place in the history of diplomacy. King Louis XVI, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vergennes, and the baron de Breteuil, ambassador of France in Vienna, later designated mediator, not only spared Europe from a general conflagration, but laid the foundations for the solidarity of nations in the face of an aggression." Empress Maria Theresa rewarded Breteuil by giving him an exceptional present:  the Teschen table, the most beautiful exhibit at the château de Breteuil. This masterpiece, which is also known as la table de l'Europe, was executed by Jean-Chrétien Neuber, a jeweller and a mineralogist. It is a giant, three-dimensional puzzle of gems and precious stones which hold together only through the precision with which the two hundred pieces that make it up are fitted.

A younger brother of the bailli, Claude-Stanislas, born on May 7, 1730, was received in the Langue of France on August 12, 1731, but he never professed his vows. In fact, when the 3rd marquis of Breteuil died without issue in 1771, Claude-Stanislas became the 4th marquis of Breteuil and in 1778 married Geneviève de Siry de Marigny.

An aunt of the baron de Breteuil was none other than the famous Gabrielle-Emilie de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet. The author of Un Château pour tous describes her as "one of the most famous women of science of all times." Her works include La Dissertation sur la nature du feu, Institutions physiques and Les Grands commentaires sur Newton. Her regular correspondence with men of science, for example Jean-Jacques Marain, secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie des sciences, is proof enough that her work enjoyed the esteem of contemporary scientists. She is also a literary figure:  the Lettres de la marquise du Châtelet have been edited several times. However, it is for her liaison with Voltaire that she is best remembered. In 1732, when she was 26 years old, she met Voltaire, aged 37, at a dinner organised by the duc de Richelieu. Some time later she joined Voltaire at Cirey where she spent seven happy years sharing with the philosopher not only her passion, but also intellectual pleasures. It was she who encouraged Voltaire to study physics, chemistry and astronomy. She died in 1749, a few days after giving birth to a girl.

 Another literary connection with the château de Breteuil is that of Marcel Proust (1871-1922) whom the owner of the time, Henri de Breteuil, often invited to join parties that brought together the international élite of the arts and sciences, political personalities and the cream of European aristocracy. The castle figures in Proust's mostly autobiographical novels, grouped under the title A la recherche du temps perdu, under the transparent pseudonym of Bréauté. Marcel Proust is himself a permanent guest at the castle:  he reclines as a wax figure on a bed in the room dedicated to him.   Other important wax guests include Louis XVIII and Marie-Antoinette portrayed in the act of receiving the Treaty of Teschen that has just been presented to them by Louis-Auguste de Breteuil, as well as Edward VII of England who, on May 3, 1905, paid a visit to his old friend, the marquis de Breteuil.

 My family and I had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting the marquis de Breteuil and his charming spouse when we visited the château in the autumn of 1999. The marquis gave us the key to the Orangerie in which is displayed a collection of sanguines, drawings in red chalk by Jean-Robert Ango.   These drawings are copies of some of the paintings the bailli had in the large collection which he amassed during the twenty years he spent as ambassador of the Order in Rome.   These sanguines are almost all dated 1765-1766.   They were the subject of an exhibition held at the château de Breteuil between May 1 and November 11, 1986, entitled:  Un grand collectionneur sous Louis XV:  le cabinet de Jacques-Laure de Breteuil, bailli de l'Ordre de Malte 1723-1785.

Fortunately, we know exactly what the bailli left. We owe this to the rules of the Order for, while the books were incorporated into the Order's library in Malta, his works of art had to be sold. Since his last residence was the Embassy of the Order in Paris, his collection, divided into 303 lots, was sold by auction in Paris "on January 16, 1786 and on the following days [..] by M. Le Brun." The relative catalogue is entitled Catalogue de tableaux des écoles d'Italie, de Flandres, et de France. Dessins, Estampes, Terres-cuites, Marbres, Bronzes antiques et modernes, Ouvrages de mosaïque, Surtout de table en pierres précieuses, Porcelaines anciennes et modernes, Tabatière ornée de peintures de Petitot, Camées antiques, Boîtes de malaquit et de lapis, Vases et table de marbre rare, belles Girandoles, Pendule, Feux et bras de bronze doré d'or mat et d'or moulu, Lustre de cristal de roche, Meubles et différents autres objets rares et précieux formant le cabinet de Son Excellence M. le bailli de Breteuil (Paris, 1785).   In a foreword to the catalogue, the author says that while in Rome the bailli honoured and welcomed artists as his distinguished guests and that he liked to learn from them.   His collection contained the rarest and most varied pieces.   A quick glimpse at the catalogue reveals, among other masterpieces, the bust of a woman by Guido Reni (lot no. 12), the portrait of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velasquez (lot no. 16), a womanís head by Bernini (lot no. 17), the Marriage of the Virgin and St. Joseph by Albrecht Dürer (lot no. 32), the Sacrifice by Pierre Mignard (lot no. 42), the Interior of a Room by Fragonard (lot no. 49), four views by Vernet (lots 50-53), a terracotta figure of a man on horseback by Michelangelo (lot no. 115) and a dying Cleopatra, also in terracotta, by Bernini (lot no. 116).

Although, as has already been said, it seems that no description of any sort of the bailliís library exists, it would be interesting to point out a few of his ex libris.   Manuscript marked Cod. VI, one of the items in the Fine Bookbindings exhibition, is, in the words of Maroma Camilleri, "an exquisite Book of Hours also carrying miniature illuminations". Cod. VIII, entitled like Cod. VI Officium Beatæ Maryæ Virginis, is also an illuminated manuscript on parchment, with four more pages (165 in all) than the latter. Cod. XII, entitled Officium Mortuorum, has 69 pages, 12mo, with an illuminated design on the first page. Among the printed works he owned, a beautifully bound volume entitled Les Exercices de Mars, containing 23 engravings with a title and a short explanation, stands out.   The bailli also possessed a rare 1617  Genoa edition of Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata.   Other elegantly bound, though less ornate, works include a 1760 Amsterdam edition of Prémontval's Le Diogène de díAlembert ou Diogène Décent and a catalogue published before the sale of Colbertís library entitled Biblioteca Colbertina (Paris, 1728).   A 1751 Paris edition in eight volumes of åuvres by Fontenelle, a contemporary writer, also belonged to him.   These works are proof enough that the bailli de Breteuil was a lover of books and that his library is typical of any contemporary French book collector.

 The château de Breteuil and its 185 acre park, situated in the Chevreuse valley in Ile-de-France, is just over an hour's drive from Paris.   It is open to visitors every day.   While waxwork figures inside the castle bring back to life a few historical events, waxwork tableaux in the outbuildings represent several of Perrault's fairy tales.   Apart from the inherent beauty of the castle and its park and of the surrounding landscape, the links of this castle with the Order of St. John should attract many Maltese to pay it a visit.

Copyright C. Depasquale 2001
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (Paris):
CP Malte, 16

National Library of Malta:
AOM 271, 910, 1204, 1375, 6430
 Misc. 258

BRETEUIL, Henri-François de:
 Un Château pour tous, Paris, Philippe Gentil, 1975

BRIAT, René:
 Le Miracle de Breteuil, plaquette réalisée par Connaissance des Arts

Catalogues:
Fine Bookbindings from the National Library and the Magistral Palace Library and Archives, Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Rome, held at Fort St. Angelo, Birgu, Malta, 5th November-5th December, 1999, by Fra John Edward Critien, Maroma Camilleri and Joseph Schirò, Malta, M. Demajo Group, 1999
Un grand collectionneur sous Louis XV:  Le cabinet de Jacques-Laure de Breteuil, bailli de l'Ordre de Malte, 1723-1785.   The catalogue of an exhibition held at the Château de Breteuil between May 1 and November 11, 1986, with a foreword by Séverine de Breteuil

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The marquis de Breteuil and the authors of Fine Bookbindings, for their kind permission to reproduce information, extracts and pictures from their books.