Introduction
The court of Marie and Louis XVI was among the most splendid of the eighteenth century, a model of elegance, refinement, and extravagance for aristocrats throughout Europe. In the spring of 2005 the Newberry's Washington Square Park neighbor, the Alliance Française de Chicago, held a symposium on the decorative arts entitled “Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Patron of the Arts.” To celebrate the Newberry's fraternitè with the Alliance, the library offered a glimpse at the equally splendid printed sources housed at the Newberry that relate to the last great queen of France.
