43. CAESAR. Commentary. In Montargis, from... - Lot 43 - Osenat

Lot 43
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Estimation :
8000 - 10000 EUR
43. CAESAR. Commentary. In Montargis, from... - Lot 43 - Osenat
43. CAESAR. Commentary. In Montargis, from the printing office of Cl. Lequatre, and sold in Paris, by Charles-Guillaume Leclerc, Guillaume de Bure, Alexandre Jombert, 1785. 2 (of 3) large volumes in-4, (4)-xxiv-481-(1) + (4)-534-(2 of which the last one is blank) pp, bilingual french and latin printing on 2 columns, brown shagreened calf, spine ribbed, partitioned and decorated with red and green title and greef, fine gilt frieze framing the boards, head and spine rebound, restorations to the spines, stamps scratched on the title, one of which is later covered with an ex-libris with the initial "S" crowned, restoration in the inner margin of the false title of the first volume, Bilingual annotated edition combining the Latin text of the edition established in 1712 by the English theologian Samuel Clarke, and the classic French translation by Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt - one of his famous "belles infidèles" - in its version revised in 1767 by the philologist Noël-François de Wailly, with new adjustments by Lancelot Turpin de Crissé. These first two volumes contain the complete text of La Guerre des Gaules. FIRST EDITION OF THE HISTORICAL AND MILITARY COMMENTARY BY LANCELOT TURPIN DE CRISSE. An officer at the battle of Fontenoy, appointed lieutenant general of the king's armies in 1780, he emigrated at the beginning of the Revolution, served in Condé's army, and died in 1793 in Vienna at the home of Prince Esterhazy. A great scholar, he published several works on military theory, including an Essay on the Art of War, and was accepted as a member of the Academies of Nancy and Berlin. A Freemason, he was a member of the famous Lodge Les Neuf Sœurs which brought together intellectuals, scientists and artists. Illustrated with copperplate engravings out of the text: 2 portrait-frontispieces by various artists, and 27 folding plates on drawings by Andrea Carassi representing views of battles from a cavalier perspective. EXAMPLE OF THE CHATEAU DE MALMAISON LIBRARY (stamps of the 1829 sale on the false titles, n° 92 of the catalogue of this sale). Although the Château de Malmaison really belonged to Josephine from 1799 onwards, the library at the château reflected the wishes and tastes of Napoleon Bonaparte, who frequently visited it during his Consulate: fitted out from July to September 1800 by the architects Percier and Fontaine, with glass shelving by the cabinetmakers Jacob, it was on the same level as the garden, adjoining the Council Chamber, with a hidden staircase leading directly to Napoleon's bedroom. In addition, the acquisition and organisation of the books was entrusted to Napoleon Bonaparte's private librarian, the orientalist Louis Ripault, who had been in charge of the library of the Institute of Egypt during the expedition, and his secretary Claude-François Méneval had his office there. Five to six thousand volumes were thus collected, mainly on history, military science and philosophy, and arranged according to a thematic classification, as was common practice at the end of the 18th century. The custody of the Malmaison library was then placed in the hands of two successive librarians, Father Jacques Dupuy (1800-1805), Napoleon Bonaparte's former grammar teacher at Brienne, and Father Jacques Halma (1805-1809), a mathematician who had been secretary of studies at the École polytechnique and professor of geography at the École spéciale militaire de Fontainebleau. On Josephine's death in 1814, an inventory of the books was drawn up by the bookseller Pierre Mongie, and the Malmaison estate was managed by two successive intendants, Etienne Soulange-Bodin and then Baron Darnay from 1821 onwards. The library was dispersed in several stages: firstly, during the occupation of the Château de Malmaison by the Allies in 1815, several of the most beautiful volumes were removed from the library. Then, some books were sent to Prince Eugène in Bavaria and to Hortense de Beauharnais in Switzerland, and several auctions were organized: on December 15, 1815 by the bookseller Pierre Mongie, then on May 28, 1818 at Sotheby's, on December 22, 1823 by the same Pierre Mongie, and above all, after Prince Eugène's death in 1824, on June 28-29, 5-6 and July 12-13, 1829, again by Pierre Mongie. Among the marks of provenance that the Malmaison volumes may bear are "Bibliothèque de la Malmaison" stamps, according to two models, the most common of which is the one affixed at the time of the great Mongie sale of 1829, as here (cf. Jérémie Benoit and Marion Pourtout, Livres précieux du musée de Malmaison, Paris, RMN, 1992). PROVENANCE: DUC DE BASSANO LIBRARY, HUGUES-BERNARD MARET (1763-1839), Minister of State and then Minister of Foreign Affairs under Napoleon I, and President of the Council under Louis-Philippe I (signature on the
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