8vo. iv, 164 pp., half-title, contemporary cloth, marbled edges, title gilt on decorated spine, light foxing to end leaves, previous owner’s small stamp verso back cover, otherwise copy in very good condition, Librairie d’Amyot, Editeur, Paris, 1854.

Synopsis

Karl Ludwig Reichsgraf von Ficquelmont (1777- 1857), was an Austrian aristocrat, statesman and Field marshal of the Austrian Imperial army of French noble origin. The son of a nobility family from Lorrainer family dating back to the 14th century (House of Ficquelmont), he was introduced to the King at the Royal Court of Versailles in 1789.
Only a few months later, the French Revolution started. His family, as high nobility aristocrats were targeted by the Revolution, several of his relatives were beheaded and many of their Estates were confiscated during the Terror era. Ficquelmont chose to join the “Army of the Princes” fighting against the Revolutionary France. He eventually entered the military service of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1793. Ficquelmont participated in all Austrian campaigns in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was regarded as a brilliant military officer.
After the end of the revolutions, Ficquelmont refused to come back to politics but dedicated himself to the writing and publishing of several political essays that gained wide recognition throughout Europe.
This work appeared in German for the first time in 1854, with title: Die religiöse Seite der orientalischen Frage.