Gilles Germain Richard de Ruffey (1706 - 1794), seigneur de Ruffey sous Beaune, de Vesvrotte, de Trouhans, du Martray et de Crilloire en Anjou.
Richard de Ruffey - Président à la Chambre des comptes de Bourgogne and élu du Roi aux États de Bourgogne, was a passionate numismate and known as a man of culture and a bibliophile having formed a rich library.
Married in 1739 Anne Claude de La Forest.
In 1759 he was elected président de l'Académie de Dijon.
His daughter Marie Thérèse Sophie (b. 1754-1789), marquise de Monnier by marriage (1771) was famous by being the lover of Mirabeau with whom she eloped to Geneva and then to Holland (see, Memoirs of Mirabeau: Biographical, Literary, and Political…, London, E. Churton, 1835).
His elder son Frédéric-Henri Richard de Ruffey, président au Parlement de Bourgogne till its dissolution by the Revolutionary Assembly in 1790, was arrested and imprisoned during the Revolution accused of being an émigré and a Royalist and executed in 1794.
The bookplate:
Arms: Azure, on a chief or three bezants gules.
Supporters: Two eagles proper with a marquess’ crown
Motto: Quo Justior, Eo Editior
Legend: «Ex Libris Dni. Richard de Ruffey, Regi à Conciliis. Ejusquè in generalibus Burgundiae Comitiis Electi perpetui»
Artist: Copper engraving by Jean-Baptiste Scotin (b. 1678- d. aft. 1733) who belonged to dynasty of notable engravers.
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Sources: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Germain_Richard_de_Ruffey;
Léon Quantin, Ex-Libris Bourguignons, Paris, 1907, page 49 ;
Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, ouvrage rédigé par une société ..., Tome Quatre-Vingtième, Paris, L. G. Michaud, 1847, pp. 135-141
Paul Cottin, Sophie de Monnier et Mirabeau d'àprès leur correspondance secrète inédite…, Paris, 1903
