It has been said that Louis XIV built Versailles for his court, Trianon for himself, and Marly for his friends.

To that end, Marly consisted of a main house for the King and his immediate family, and 12 guest pavilions.  Each pavilion contained 2 apartments, one on each floor.  If each guest was married, as many as 48 people could be accommodated.  The pavilions faced each other across a water feature in two rows of 6.  As the picture below shows, Marly was surrounded by forested hills, which must have given it a pleasing sense of privacy.

The Domaine de Marly as it appeared in 1724. Credit: fr.wikipedia.org.

Apart from the Queen, and later the King’s second wife, Mme de Maintenon, only his brother, Monsieur, and his son, the Dauphin, had the right to accompany the King to Marly without being invited and had their own permanent rooms there.  Everyone else, even other members of the royal family and the Princes of the Blood (i.e. the King’s cousins), had to apply for an invitation, either to the King’s private secretary, or directly to the King himself.  As the day for a departure to Marly approached, courtiers would murmur, “Sire, Marly?” as the Grand Monarque made his way from his bedroom at Versailles through the Hall of Mirrors to the chapel.  If the King invited a lady to Marly, her husband was automatically included, unlike at Trianon, where he was not.  Naturally, invitations were highly sought after.

While browsing in my local antiquarian and secondhand bookshop, Condor Fine Books, I happened on a nearly 40-year-old volume entitled Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia, by Suzanne Massie.

Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia, by Suzanne Massie.

Leafing through it, I was delighted to find that an entire chapter was devoted to one my favourite Versailles Century (1682-1789) characters: Elizabeth Petrovna, Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias.  An able ruler, she was also a great beauty and a woman of prodigious appetites.

The Marriage of Figaro is one of Mozart’s most popular works.  Opera Atelier, Canada’s — nay, North America’s — premier early music opera company, is currently regaling Toronto audiences with it.

Opera Atelier’s 2017-2018 poster. Credit: Opera Atelier.

A small company, Opera Atelier mounts only 2 operas a year, although sometimes an older one is revived for special performances.  The Marriage of Figaro is the fall 2017 production, while Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses will hit the stage of the Elgin Theatre in April, 2018.

I attended the matinée performance of Figaro, which is performed in English, this past Sunday, 29 October.

It was on this day (11 October) in 1739 that Grigory Potemkin, future lover and perhaps secret husband of Catherine the Great, was born.  His name has lived on in popular parlance mainly thanks to the “Potemkin village,” which has obscured his true achievements.

Grigory Potemkin painted late in life by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder. Credit: Wikipedia.

Born in the provinces into a petty noble family, Potemkin first attracted Catherine’s notice during the coup in 1762 that brought her to the throne.  Appearing on horseback and in uniform before a guards regiment, the story goes, Catherine found herself unable to take the salute properly because she was without a sword.  The young Potemkin saw her difficulty and spurred forward to offer her his own sword.  He evidently made an impression because she singled him out for promotion and reward throughout the next decade while she was still with Grigory Orlov, and then briefly with a handsome dullard named Vassilchikov.

The Abbé de Bernis is one of those fascinating, worldly prelates, more at home in the drawing room than the confessional, who inhabited the haut monde of pre-Revolution Paris and Versailles.  It was on 2 October in 1758 that the red biretta was bestowed on him.

The Cardinal de Bernis (1715-1794). Credit: Wikipedia.

The future Cardinal de Bernis was born in 1715 and took minor orders after finishing his studies at a seminary in Paris.  Before embarking on his political and diplomatic career he was known as a writer, indeed he was elected to the Académie Française at age 29. He was a friend and protégé of Mme de Pompadour, and through her influence was appointed ambassador to Venice (1752-1755).  He remarked on his appointment to this post, which was not one of the more important or prestigious ones, that the worst thing that could happen to him there would be to be forgotten.

The UNESCO-listed historic centre of the Mexican city of Queretaro, about 2 hours north of Mexico City, is a treasure house of New World baroque architecture, of which the chief secular jewel is the Casa de la Marquesa.

The façade of the Casa de la Marquesa.

Built in the mid-18C as an aristocratic residence, it’s now run as an elegant boutique hotel.  I didn’t stay there, but I went for a meal in the excellent restaurant.

We’ll get to my favourite bookshop in Lisbon, Livraria Sà da Costa, in a minute.

First, a word on Portuguese secondhand and antiquarian bookshops in general (called albufarristas in Portuguese) — I’ve never seen so many!  In both Lisbon and Porto, there seemed to be one everywhere I looked.  I’ve previously written about my favourite albufarrista in Porto, Livraria Moreira da Costa.

Livraria Moreira da Costa in Porto.  

I’ve since been informed by a Portuguese friend via Instagram that book publishing was an expensive undertaking in times past, and subject to heavy censorship for much of the 20th century while Portugal groaned under the Salazar dictatorship.  As a result, most people could only afford to buy secondhand books.  If anyone has another explanation, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

It was on 13 September, 1745, that the first-ever atlas of Russia was published by the Russian Academy of Sciences.  It contained 19 regional maps as well as an overall map of the empire within its borders of that time.  This map is reproduced below thanks to Russia Beyond, which published an article on it today.

According to the article, the atlas was also translated into French, German, and Latin, which would have given it wide currency in Europe.

It was on this day in 1725 that the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leczinska took place at the Château de Fontainebleau.

It was a union that no one would ever have predicted.  Louis was the 15-year-old king of the largest and richest kingdom in Europe, while Marie was the 22-year-old daughter of a deposed and exiled King of Poland.  An old maid by the standards of the day, she was also not considered a beauty.

Marie Leczinska in 1730 by Alexis Simon Belle. Credit: Wikipedia.

How did this penniless princess land the most eligible crowned head in Europe (never mind that he was a teenager)?