Almanach et Etat de la Gendarmerie pour l'année bissextile 1768

Almanach et Etat de la Gendarmerie pour l'année bissextile 1768. Lunéville, chez Messuy, 1768. Bound together with: Tarif de la réduction des monnoyes de France et de Lorraine. Nancy, chez Charlot, Fils, Imprimeur des Cours Souveraines, Rue S. Nicolas, 1767. Sextodecimo (16mo), both volumes complete. Full red morocco leather, gilt fillet frame on boards, gilt corner fleurons and central fleuron in small tools. Smooth spine decorated with six repeated small fleurons. Gilt edges. Marbled endpapers. Lower headcap slightly pushed. The pages of the Almanach are not numbered. Note: contemporary manuscript additions of names in the seniority chapter. Second volume 34 pp and table. Leaves 29 to 31 are detached from the sewing. Two bookplates, one 18th century, the other 20th century. Overall in good condition, interior very fresh. Fine copy of this almanac published shortly after the installation of the Gendarmerie France, an elite corps of the Maison du Roi, in Lunéville. It contains the calendar for the year, the states of the companies, lists of officers and brigades, as well as various information relating to the organization of the corps. Bound following is the Tarif de la réduction des monnoyes de France et de Lorraine, printed in Nancy the previous year, intended to facilitate the conversion of French and Lorraine currency. After the death of Stanislas Leszczynski in 1766 and the definitive incorporation of Lorraine into the Kingdom of France, French and Lorraine currencies continued to circulate simultaneously for several years. Military officers, receivers, treasurers, suppliers, and administrators had to constantly convert the values of the different currencies still accepted in payments. These small tariffs, published for the use of practitioners, were frequently bound with administrative almanacs, true pocket manuals. The Gendarmerie, heir to the ordinance companies established in the 15th century, formed under Louis XV a prestigious heavy cavalry composed almost exclusively of gentlemen. While it retained a military role on the battlefields, it also fulfilled functions of representation, escort, and security for the Crown. The companies were distributed in several garrisons, of which Lunéville became one of the main ones from 1767. Interesting contemporary sammelband (factitious collection) bringing together two Lorraine administrative publications intended for the use of an officer or an administrator.