[ARGENTEAU - HERMALLE MANUSCRIT] "Duplicate... - Lot 457 - Morel de Westgaver

[ARGENTEAU - HERMALLE MANUSCRIT] "Duplicate of the Account of the Receipt of the Seals of the Audience for the Year Finÿ of December [1701]." In-folio, 47 ff. on vellum. Contemporary parchment boards, title in ink on the front cover. Some light yellowing, rare stains, cut at bottom of last 2 ff,., ms. annot. by another contemporary hand and pen drawing of two grotesque figures; cart. lightly soiled, traces of closing laces. Period copy, very legible and well preserved. Accounts preceded by the letters patent of attermination and beginning in April 1690, kept by Nicolas Dancey for Louis-Antoine de Claris (1645-1715), Count of Clairmont, Lord of Argenteau and Hermalle. Appointed in 1680 as auditor and first secretary of state of the general government of the Spanish Netherlands, he was in charge in 1686 of the Spanish embassy in The Hague. Deposed in 1693 at the request of William III of Orange, he had to give up his position to his son Philippe-Antoine, who had been assisting him since 1691. In 1706, he entered the Council of State and became in 1707 grand bailli of Dendermonde. The function of the audiencier, introduced in the Netherlands by the dukes of Burgundy and made hereditary in the 16th century, was an essential part of the administration of central institutions. Its competences were very broad. In addition to his responsibility for the collection of seal duties, which is the subject of this book, he sat on the various government councils and carried out diplomatic missions for certain sovereigns. This concentration of powers, a source of considerable income, was increasingly criticized in the 18th century and the office was finally abolished in 1744. Bibliography: Biographie nationale, t. XXXI, 213-216.