[Le Jeune de Boulencourt.] A pattern of a well-constituted and well-governed hospital: Or, a brief description of the building, and full relation of the establishment, constitution, discipline, oeconomy and administration of the government of the Royal Hospital of the Invalids, near Paris. Partly translated from a large book printed some years ago in French; and partly extracted out of some other manuscript relations never before published. Translated by James Fraser. London: Richard Baldwin, 1695. 8vo (157 x 99 mm). Folding engraved plate. Sprinkled calf ca. 1695, rebacked. Tears in plate repaired, minor worming in gutter margins of several leaves, but very good. Provenance: Nicholson family of Scotland (armorial bookplate, with motto 'nil sistere contra'. The anonymous translator of this title, James Fraser, was of this family line). FIRST EDITION of this English translation of Le Jeune de Boulencourt's Déscription générale de l'Hostel royal des Invalides (1683). The original French edition, a magnificent and expensive folio volume, documented the construction and management of the Hôtel des Invalides, the pioneering hospital and retirement home commissioned in 1670 by Louis XIV for the treatment and housing of wounded and indigent veterans. The design of Les Invalides strongly influenced the construction of similar institutional buildings in England, including the Chelsea Hospital (est. 1682), designed by Christopher Wren, and the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich (est. 1695), the work of Wren and his pupil John Hawksmoor. It was the founding of the latter hospital that prompted Fraser's anonymously published English translation of Le Jeune's Déscription générale, which made the substance of the French work available at a far more reasonable price. Construction of the Royal Naval Hospital began in 1696, so it is more than likely that Fraser's translation served as a reference for the hospital's builders. This book is rare, with OCLC noting only four copies in the United States (NY Acad. Med., U. Rochester, Huntington Lib., UCLA). For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing