I was perusing this page on examples of books owned by the aristocracy during this time period. One book that kept popping up was L'Office de La Sermaine Sainte. I tried doing a bit of research into the book, but only find the title available on booksellers' sites under rare books and I can't seem to find any useful information about it. So I turn to anybody here who might have some knowledge about this sort of thing.
Was this a popular book during this time period in any way? If so, why was it popular, particularly with the aristocracy? What is this book about?
What were other books that would commonly be found on elite bookshelves in Europe during the 1600s-early 1700s?
Okay I did a reverse image search on the set owned by Marie Antionette and was able to find the full title and author!
The full title is: L'Office de la semaine sainte, à l'usage de la maison du roi
Which translates into something like "Holy Week Service, for use in the house of the King"
The author was Abbé Bellegarde, who was a prolific writer of religious tracts, as well as translating Greek and Latin works of the Church Fathers into French.
The expanded title gives us a better idea what this actually was:
"Conformément aux Bréviaires & Missels Romain & Parisien Avec l'explication des Cérémonies de l'Eglise, et des Instructions, Prières & courtes Réflexions sur les Mystères & Offices"
"In accordance with the Bréviaries (a Catholic text like the Book of Hours) & Missels Romain (liturgical texts containing chants) & Parisien with the explanation of ceremonies of the Church, and the instructions, prayers, and short reflextions on the mysteries and services".
So this was a large holy book that contained both Latin and French that was made for use in the King's household, which makes sense given that all of the pictures were books made for the royal family!
I highly recommend Robert Darnton's books on French literature in the 18th century. From my reading on the French Revolution, predominately from Timothy Tackett's usage of Darnton in Becoming a Revolutionary, I can tell you that religious texts of this sort were very popular in the first half of the 18th century, but were becoming increasingly unpopular in the later years, being replaced by more typical 'Enlightenment' works. The monarchy and aristocracy in general (though there were of course many exceptions) remained devoutly Catholic, so liturgical texts would have remained popular.
I am really only finding sources for this in French, but my French is good enough to pick through it if you have any more questions!