Austrian printings of the Treaty of Paris (1856) and Treaty of Berlin (1878)

Very Good. Quarto, half black leather, marbled boards, title stamped in gilt on spine. Offprints from the Reichs-Gesetz-Blatt of 1856 and 1878, bound together, paginated 209-249; 177-209, very good, light rubbing to leather. Important pair of treaties: the Paris 1856 treaty effectively concluded the Crimean War. The Western European powers pledged to maintain the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and restored the respective territories of the Russian and the Ottoman Empires to their prewar boundaries. They also neutralized the Black Sea for international trade: it was a huge setback for Russian influence in the region. The Treaty of Berlin (1878) came at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish war and was a remapping of the Balkans, pushing back Russian claims and forcing the Ottomans to accept the loss of major European holdings, in a plan largely orchestrated by Bismarck. From 1849 to 1918, the Reichsgesetzblatt (legal abbreviation: RGBl. ) was the official publication organ of the Imperial Patents, Laws, Regulations and State Treaties of the Austrian monarchy--at the time of these treaties under Franz Josef I. Although not stated, owned by Ulysses Grant-Smith (1870-1959), a lifelong diplomat who was stationed in Vienna as part of the American Legation through WWI and who was later the American signatory of the US-Hungarian Peace Treaty of 1921, which had to be done separately because the US senate refused to be part of the Treaty of Trianon. These two treaties would have been good historical preparation for his approach to the 1921 treaty.