Splendour of Table and Décor at Versailles

The restoration of the magnificent room called the 'Antichambre du Grand Couvert', in the Palace of Versailles, has just been completed. It was the place where king Louis XIV and his family used to have diner, at night (10 pm), in public - a ceremonial repast which was called 'au Grand Couvert'.

This book, a French English bilingual edition, put the focus on the "Grand Couvert", describing its organization and decrypting its rituals and codes.

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Nicolas Milovanovic
L'Antichambre du Grand Couvert : Fastes de la table et du décor à Versailles,
Gourcuff Gradenigo - Livres d'art LG, 2010, 120 p.

Quantova

In the years 1673/1674, Madame de Sévigné's and her friends started to refer to Madame de Montespan as "Quantova" or "Quanto".
Why such a nickname and what was the meaning of it ?

In that time, the snobish must among the French elite was to read and speak Italian, and the nickname was referring to the quote Madame de Sévigné once (a few years later) wrote in its entirety : "La Pedina del Re quanto va".

Pedina and Re belong to the Italian chess vocabulary, and they appear in a Italian proverb which says "Alla fin del gioco tanto va nel sacco il re quanto la pedina" which translates "After the game, the king and pawn go into the same box". Doubtlessly, that was the origin of the quote, but when the proverb was referring to death, madame de Sévigné was playing with the other meaning of "pedina".
In Italian, "pedina" means "pawn" but it was also the word used for an illegitimate wife. In that light, the "king and pedina in the same box at the end" had a very different meaning.

So, "Quantova" was a private joke on Madame de Montespan being the king's mistress and on how long she would be able to hold the position.