VOLUME I ONLY of RARE 17th-century historical survey of France by the renowned French historian François Eudes de Mézeray (1610-1683) - the official "Historiographer to the King of France" who in 1675 succeeded Valentin Conrart as permanent secretary to the Académie Française. Contains b&w frontispiece of Louis XIV of France and numerous portraits of rulers of France in periods discussed in the volume. 270x210mm. 617 pages + 54 pages of "Table des Matieres" (p.617 mispaginated as p.597). Brown leather Hardcover with ribbed spine. Cover rubbed, stained and slightly loose. Cover edges and corners, and inner cover edges peeling. Rear cover edges partly missing. Spine missing. First whitepages creased. 3 small pen inscriptions on whitepages. Several small stains on title page and whitepages. Small hole on page 479 bottom edge. Water-stain on pages 121-138 bottom corner - no damage to text. Small worm-mark on bottom corner of pages 595-617 and most pages of the index. 3 small wormholes on rear whitepage penetrating into pages of the index. 2 small worm-marks on pages 597-617 with minimal damage to text. Small pen mark on pages 397 and 606 near text. Most pages bottom corner tattered. Pages yellowing and age-stained. [SUMMARY]: This extremely rare book has suffered some damage (mostly to cover), but is still in good reading condition.