[Venice].MareMagnum
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4to (230 x 160 mm). Latin and Italian manuscript on vellum. 80 numbered ff., 21 lines. Headings and highlighted words in red; ruled throughout. Contemp. auburn calf, covers and spine elaborately gilt; all edges gilt; giltstamped supralibros "Iacobo Priolo" and date "MDLXXVIIII" on the covers. Wants ties. Interesting manuscript on the constitutional and legal history of the Venetian state, with many decrees regulating commerce, drafted in the age of Venice's great trade relationship with the East. The clean and well-legible manuscript, written in the classical humanist chancery style, was obviously prepared for members of the senate (signed at the end by the secretary, Giulio Zamberti, with the scribe's monogram). The decrees are arranged in chronological order, rater than by subject. The earliest dated decree is from the year 1351, but most date from the mid-16th century. The edicts regulated public life of the Venetian state, including civil servants' salaries, matters of commerce and trade, offices, criminal law, banishment, and other matters. The first leaf bears the dedication by the doge Nicolò da Ponte (in office 1578-85) to Jacopo Priuli, a member of one of the foremost modern-age families of Venetian patricians (producing two doges in the 16th century). The familiy, ennobled as early as 1297 and one of the richest in Venice, is also known for its patronage of the arts, commissioning several Tintoretto portraits. As a member of the senate, Jacopo would have been entitled to a private copy of the statues. The high quality of the binding with its rich arabesque ornamentation and wide ornamental borders on the covers reflects the importance of the patron family. - Engraved bookplate of Amadeo Svayer (Gottlieb Schweyer, 1727-91), a Venice-based German merchant and bibliophile who had assembled a huge and select library which after his death was almost entirely integrated into St Mark's library.
8vo (100 x 150 mm). 187 written pages on 175 unnumbered ff. (numerous otherwise blank pages ruled in red ink). German and occasional Latin manuscript on paper by at least three different hands in brown and red ink, written in a regular cursive hand. With gilt calligraphic frontispiece in micrography, 2 full-page portraits and 1 coat of arms, all in watercolour and gilt. Contemporary blindstamped calf, edges goffered and gilt, upper cover stamped "Adam Eckhart". Wants ties. Charmingly illustrated medical manuscript by several hands, all belonging to the late 16th or the earliest decades of the 17th century. The first part of the manuscript is a compendium of surgeon's recipes, mainly comprising ointments, powders, and bandages against stabbings and other bleeding wounds, as well as preparations against cramps and other conditions. The arrangement into several segments, each followed by a few blank pages, as well as a few scribal lapses suggest that this part was copied from an earlier manual and was intended to be expanded. The anonymous author of this compilation, possibly written as early as the late 16th century, makes no secret of his admiration for Paracelsus, to whom he dedicates a coloured double-page illustration showing the portrait, arms, and coffin of the great physician and alchemist. - This is followed by an extensive section captioned "Der barmhertzige Samariter" ("The Good Samaritan", fol. 55 ff.), signed at the beginning and end by Stephan Knauff - very likely the barber surgeon of this name based in Vianden near Trier, mentioned in 1634 in the miracle books of the Eberhardsklausen monastery (cf. P. Hoffmann, Publikationen der Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde, vol. 64, no. 824). - A full-page illustration at the end of the volume shows a priest with a cross and a Vanitas skull - apparently a self-portrait by Johann Martin Hecker, a native of Baden who served as chaplain in Fraulautern in the Sarre region. In a two-page postscript dated 29 December 1619 he dedicates the volume to his "good friend" Adam, very probably the Adam Eckhardt whose ownership is stamped to the upper cover. It may also have been the theologian Hecker who prefixed the volume with the highly decorative frontispiece: a single leaf from a slightly earlier catechetic manuscript, trimmed and pasted on fol. 3 ("Die sechs Hauptstuck christlicher Lehre, in unten verfassete stuck geschrieben, durch Martinum Dornbergern", dated 1608). The masterly calligram in micrography shows the Ten Commandments, Lord's Prayer, Apostles' Creed, etc. in the shape of a chalice, Eucharistic wafer, and Tablets of Law. The calligrapher Martin Dornberger is mentioned in the 1580 Book of Concord as a Lutheran verger in Hilpoltstein (Franconia). - Binding a little rubbed and warped, spine and hinges rubbed, upper spine-end a little chipped. Interior somewhat browned and stained with occasional light waterstains; several paper flaws to lower corners without loss to text. From the library of the Antwerp banker and bibliophile Jan Baptist Vervliet (1855-1942) with his bookplate to front pastedown.
Folio (27,5 x 18,5 cm). (1 blank), (1), 66 pp. With 5 full-page and 2 half-page hand-painted religious illustrations and 9 hand-painted initials on a blue background, heightened with gold and silver. 18th c. gold- and blind-tooled vellum, each board with a blind ornamental centrepiece in a blind-tooled frame, within a larger frame of gold fillets, with a gilt floral design in each of the 6 spine compartments. A manuscript service book for the divine offices of the confraternity of Santa Maria di Passione (Santa Maria della Passione), remarkably illustrated and penned on vellum in a very fine and legible hand, largely imitating roman printing types. It contains seven illustrations, the five full-page examples showing the Virgin Mary: the Pietà, the Annunciation, Mary as the Woman of the Apocalypse, a Madonna and child, and the Assumption of Mary. The two approximately half-page tailpieces serve a more decorative function, representing of six putti on a garland with grape vines and a tree or shrub (laurel?) growing out of a gold vase (the fragments of red and black text on the vase are in mirror image and must have stuck to the paint). All illustrations are hand-painted with gouaches in striking colours. - A divine office, or liturgy of the hours, contains the official set of prayers for the eight canonical hours of the day: matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, nones, vespers and compline. The day began with the matins at approximately 2 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. with compline. Each of the offices in this manuscript begins with a hand-painted initial in gold on blue ground with silver foliage; the text of the matins contains an extra initial, bringing the total to nine. Apart from a detailed description and instruction for the offices, the manuscript also contains other instructions and rules to be observed by members of the confraternity, such as the rites for welcoming novices and pilgrims. - The first known mention of the confraternity of Santa Maria di Passione was in 1455; a set of rules ("Ordini riformati della compagniadi santa maria della passione al campanile dei reverendi canonici") has survived from 1565. The confraternity was located in Milan, in a building right next to - or even attached to - the basilica of Sant'Ambrogio called the Oratorio di Santa Maria di Passione. The basilica was built by St Ambrose in the 4th century, and during its long history it has hosted multiple religious communities, some simultaneously. Even after the damage done during the bombing of Milan by Allied forces in 1943, the building still shows this history in the many different chapels and the existence of two towers, one built for the canons located on the north side and one built for the monks on the south side of the basilica. The confraternity was disbanded near the end of the 18th century and the oratory, until then an autonomous building, was bought by the management of the basilica. The oratory was decorated with several frescos, which were auctioned off at the end of the 19th century, including three bought by the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London. - Binding slightly soiled. With an owner's label "Sub tutela matris" (under protection of the [holy] mother) and an inscription in Dutch on the front pastedown: "Handschrift met geschilderde prenten. Italiaansch werk op perkament" ("manuscript with painted illustrations. Italian work on vellum"). The vellum leaves vary in colour from white to slightly toned. Illustrations, initials and text leaves generally in good condition except for the initials on pp. 7 and 31; illustration on p. 33 shows some minor soiling. A tear in p. 9 repaired with tape (but text remains legible), lower corners of the leaves show minor signs of wear, otherwise in good condition. Illustrated manuscript written in a very fine, legible hand. An attractive Italian manuscript that provides an insight into the day-to-day religious life of the members of the confraternity of Santa Maria di Passione in Milan and is supplemented with eye-catching, hand-painted illustrations and initials. Cf. A. Rovetta, "Oratorio di Santa Maria della Passione - Cenni storici", in: Oratorio della Passione in Sant'Ambrogio a Milano: Risanamento degli intonaci e restauro degli affreschi (Milan, 2004), pp. 10-17.
4to (190 x 248 mm). French manuscript, ink on paper. (2), IV, 190 (but: 189), (7) pp. (first leaf blank save for the ink borders, pp. 33-34 transposed before 27, p. 146 skipped, last text and last index page blank). With numerous ink drawings throughout, many full-page. Contemporary full calf with remains of a spine label ("Ev... Na..."). All edges red. An encompassing, finely executed manuscript on naval tactics, composed by an officer of the French navy, where this subject had long enjoyed special emphasis. The present manual contains 91 "evolutions", or techniques of seamanship and combat manoeuvres. It is unpublished in this form, but it draws heavily on and assimilates the classic works of Tourville (1693), Hoste (1697), Morogues (1763), and Bourdé de Villehuet (1765), often providing the section's source in the margin. As the anonymous author states in the preface ("Avertissement sur le suject de ce recueil"), he has compiled in this volume, at the suggestion of many younger navy officers and sailors, the sum of knowledge he acquired during his 36 years of service. The painstakingly prepared pen-and-ink illustrations show show fleet and battle formations as well as manoeuvres on the high seas and in coastal areas. With a detailed table of contents ("Table des evolutions co[n]tenues dans ce recueil") at the end. - Spine professionally repaired. A few light stains throughout, otherwise well preserved.
- 19 août 1915, 22,2x28,6cm, 2 pages sur un feuillet. - 19 August 1915, 22,2x28,6cm, 2 pages on a leaf. Autograph letter in German signed by the painter Franz Marc to his mother Sophie Marc (née Maurice); two pages in black ink. Trace of horizontal and vertical fold. Unpublished letter. Marc's wartime correspondence with his wife Maria has been published, with only a few letters to his mother (Franz Marc, Briefe, Aufzeichnungen und Aphorismen, Berlin, Paul Cassirer, 1920). Lengthy unpublished letter from Franz Marc to his mother during the First World War, written a few months before his death in Verdun. In the horror of the conflict, the future martyr of German expressionism recalls childhood images and tells horse stories from the front. Stationed on the Alsace front, the famed animal painter recounts a hilarious wild boar hunt improvised during a horseback ride, reminding him of an illustrated childhood tale: The Three Jovial Hunstmen by Randolph Caldecott (1880). Franz Marc reveals here an inspiration for his famous horses, which gave their name to the "Blaue Reiter" movement created in 1911 with Wassily Kandinsky. The horses in Caldecott's Huntsmen resemble Franz Marc's paintings from 1905-1910. This anecdote is also related to "hunting horses" sketched on the front, and a postcard sketch of the same "Jagende Pferde" sent to the poet Else Laske-Schüler in September 1915. The letter gives a glimpse of Franz Marc's daily life on the front. By a cruel irony of fate, he fought in the native region of his mother Sophie Marc née Maurice, born in 1847 in the Alsatian village of Guebwiller. When war broke out in August 1914, he joined the army hoping for a renewal of Europe like many fellow artists and intellectuals. Due to the circumstances of the war, the painter wrote his letter in German and not in French, as he was accustomed to do in his correspondence with his mother. His mother's influence was decisive in his aesthetic and spiritual approach: Marc's tireless quest for "purity" inherited from his Calvinist upbringing eventually led him to abstraction, already present in his sketches as he wrote this letter. He gives news of a future promotion, thanks his mother for sending him food and fills the page with the story of his miraculous hunt: "I have one more amusing story to tell: as I was riding out at dawn (before breakfast), I suddenly noticed a young boar (a wild boar) beside me in a ditch. I immediately called my fellow riders; he was surrounded - I already felt sorry for the poor animal, but the pity came too late! - Two of them jumped in, one grabbed him by the ears, the other poked him and the roast for the steward's table was retrieved. A most comical scene ensued: We ordered the youngest [soldier] to go home with the boar and got him on horseback; but no sooner did the horse feel the boar on his back (horses are very afraid of boars) than he reared up and threw the rider and the pig into a great arc. Fortunately, nothing happened and the embarrassed rider had to walk the boar back, then the horse really reared up as soon as he was approached. A real amateur rider! I was thinking of Dad's old English picture book: the jovial huntsman!" With this light-hearted anecdote, the painter reveals a source of inspiration still unknown to critics and historians. The Three Jovial Huntsmen certainly influenced the young Franz Marc, whose own horses painted in the 1910s (including the Weidende Pferde I, Lenbachhaus, Munich) are unmistakably marked by Caldecott's British style. In the following years, he added to this subject his kaleidoscopic touch and his emblematic blue, red and yellow colors charged with spiritual symbolism. Franz Marc also painted blue wild boars in 1913 (Museum Ludwig, Cologne). The story of this hunt is also completely new, since he asked his mother to tell it to his wife Maria to avoid writing a second letter "es ist lang: welch, sowas zweimal erzählen" (it's long: to tell the same thing twice). This
- s.l. (Vincennes) s.d. (circa 1781), 15,7x20,1cm, une feuille. - SADE Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Autograph letter to his wife. Hommages à la Présidente: "Faire noyer vive l'exécrable coquine qui depuis neuf ans [...] suce mon sang..." N. p. [Vincennes Castle] n. d. (circa 1781), 157 x 201 mm (6 3/16 x 7 15/16 "), single leaf "The more I think about it, however, the more I think you have to have quite a nerve to dare write to a poor suffering unfortunate..." Autograph letter unsigned from the Marquis de Sade to his wife. One page, closely written in ink on 31 lines. This letter was written during Sade's imprisonment at Vincennes, probably in April 1781, if one is to believe the occasional indicators of date referenced by the writer. Sade mentions the end of his "exile from Marseilles", referring to the decision of the court in Aix-en-Provence to overturn his conviction for debauchery and libertinage on the 14 July 1778, but which nonetheless banned him from living in or visiting Marseilles for three years. Sade also mentions one of the defining episodes of his life, his flight to Italy between January and November 1776: "they may as well have killed me straight off as left me in that foreign country where I was." Sade also mentions the "amazing favor" that befell him of "moving house", which is to say his potential transfer to the fort at Montélimar. In April 1781, Madame de Sade, through the good offices of her friend Madame de Sorans, got authorization from the King for her husband to be transferred to the prison there. Sade explains in the letter: "I think you have to have quite a nerve to dare write to a poor suffering unfortunate who has been beset these nine years...telling him to thank, ever so humbly, the woman who obtained for him the amazing favor of moving house." Sade is here no doubt referring to the famous Madame de Sorans, a lady of Louis XVI's sister's bedchamber and a friend of his wife's who, out of a spirit of adventure, accepted the task of petitioning the King in his favor. It was to Commissioner Le Noir, referenced in this letter, that Renée-Pélagie left the task of breaking the news to the prisoner: "Ah, I see now what this nice little visit by M. Lenoir means, I'm used to seeing him in the middle of my incarcerations." Despite the fact that, as Pauvert points out in Sade vivant, this change of "house" occupied the Marquis' thoughts to a large extent, he was never actually moved, preferring to stay in the gaols of the keep at Vincennes. At this point, Sade had been imprisoned for several years and this letter, full of movement, reveals his thirst for freedom. This letter was written when Madame de Sade withdrew to the convent at Sainte-Aure. If she saw this act as a liberation from the yoke of her marriage, the Marquis for his part was obsessed by the idea of his own liberation and mentions a potential date: October 1783. His long incarceration, which began in 1777, would last till April 1790, when lettres de cachet were abolished. Madame de Sade's visits were not reauthorized by the prison authorities until 13 July 1781, after four years and five months of separation. Several important themes in Sade's correspondence already appear in this letter from his first years in prison. First of all, his hatred for his mother-in-law, the Présidente de Montreuil, an "execrable wretch who drinks [my] blood...disgraces [her] children, who has not yet done scattering her horrific deeds and platitudes" and whom he would like to "drown alive". The Marquis also complains of his poor physical health: "my head spins and in my condition I hardly need any more misery", using very Sadean epithets to express his despair. "A poor suffering unfortunate who has been beset these nine years"; "what have I done, what have I done dear Lord, to suffer for twelve years?". Provenance: family archives.
- s.n., s.l. 17 août 1780, 10x16cm, 2 pages sur un feuillet. - Handwritten letter to his wife. Sufferance and philosophy: "Punish as much as you like, but do not kill me: I did not deserve it [...] Ah! If you could read to the bottom of my heart, see everything that happens there, I think you would give up using it!" August 17, 1780, 10 x 16 cm, loose leaves Handwritten letter from the Marquis de Sade addressed to his wife. One recto-verso leaf written in fine, tight writing. It has the partial date at the top "ce jeudi 17" "this Thursday 17th." Two slight signs of folding. The end of the letter was mutilated at the time, probably by the prison administration which destroyed the Marquis' licentious correspondence. So, several months later, in March 1781 his wife wrote to him: "My dear, you really must change your style so that your letters can reach me whole. If you give the truth, it offends, turns against you. If you give any untruths, they say: this is an incorrigible man, always with the same head that ferments, ungrateful, false etc. In any case, your style can only harm you. So change it." The letter was found as it was when, in 1948, the Marquis' trunk, that had been sealed by the family since 1814, was open and it was published in this reduced form in the correspondence of the Marquis de Sade. Provenance: family archives. This letter was written on 17 August 1780, during the Marquis' incarceration in Vincennes Prison. Following the umpteenth altercation with the prison guard, the right to go for a walk was taken away from him on 27 June and was not reinstated until 9 March the following year. The Marquis' physical and mental health is strongly affected by not being able to go out and he constantly begs Renée-Pélagie for the right to be quickly reinstated: "I urge you to let me get some fresh air: I absolutely cannot take it any longer." The suffering caused by these deprivations is a pretext for setting up a mechanism of guilt and blackmail with his wife: "There, three days that I have felt an awful dizziness, with blood rushing to my head so much so that I do not know how I have not fainted. One of these days, they will find me dead and you will be responsible, after having warned you as I do and having asked you for the help which I need to avoid it." Here, the Marquis is intentionally pulling on Renée-Pélagie's heartstrings, really putting her Christian values to the test and giving her the role of grand inquisitor: "You can grant me what I ask for, whilst keeping, on your signal, the same strength." We note, as in Tancrède's letter, a new appearance of "signal," which masks completely different semantics. An essential component of the Marquis' prison mindset, this encoded language, like the fantasised interpretations of his correspondents' letters, feeds the theories of researchers, philosophers, mathematicians... and poet biographers. As such, Gilbert Lely estimates that, far from being symptomatic of psychosis, the return to signals is "his psyche's defence reaction, a subconscious struggle against despair where, without the help of such a distraction, his motivation could have declined." Missing from his correspondence during his eleven years of freedom, these enigmatic semantic depths, "a real challenge to semiological judgement" (Lever p.637), reappear in his Charenton diary. This letter is also an opportunity for the Marquis to deploy his rhetorical panel, confronting the sadistic antonyms in the same sentence. "Pleasure" is synonymous with "abominable" "revolting," "cemetery"and "garden" are superimposed, "I suffer" is conjugated as "I enjoy" and "softness" stands alongside "darkness." The mastered practice of this eloquence exercise is united with the depths of Sadian thought: sufferance and pleasure are closely mixed, simultaneously endured, inflicted and desired. Through these associations, we glimpse the sensitive Manicheism of the Marquis's philosophical thought, which reaches its climax at the en
Oblong 8vo (ca. 215 x 175 mm). (11), (8 blank) ff. Calligraphic exercises in French, written in a French civilité with some first lines in a French cursive or gothic hand. With 9 larger decorated initials, containing extensive ink-drawn illustrations in contemporary hand colour, showing an armoured knight on horseback, birds, dragons and other fabulous beasts, a pierced heart, etc. Some letters with extensive flourishes in the margins, many of them showing ink-drawn human faces. Contemporary limp vellum, loosely stored in a modern marbled paperboard folder within a matching marbled slipcase. French calligraphic manuscript, containing 11 unnumbered leaves of calligraphic exercises. Most of them are small verses (often six lines), but the collection also contains a letter to a friend and complete alphabets. The manuscript is visually very appealing, and calligraphic manuscripts with decoration like the present one are rare: it comprises vividly decorated initials and numerous flourishes in the margins, which also contain small drawings of faces. - The manuscript was very likely manufactured in the 1640s, a period in which France took over the lead from the Dutch in the publication of writing books. Calligraphy flourished in the 17th century, as it continued to evolve. Flourishing became more important, including calligraphic drawings of human and mythical figures, animals, birds, monsters etc. The present manuscript, with its elaborate decorative alphabets, embellishing and initials, is a beautiful example of this development in calligraphy. - Some dates appear in the manuscript, one on the first page reading "1634", another one "1636", while the letter itself is dated 5 June 1643. Therefore we can assume that the manuscript as a whole was made ca. 1640-1645, with at least the last leaves written after 1643. It is possible that the other leaves were also written after 1643, but it could also be around this year, as the ink and style of the hand appears to be slightly thinner there. - Altogether a beautiful example of a calligraphic exercise book, here in manuscript, which is not only visually appealing, but which also beautifully reflects the popularity of calligraphy manuals and copybooks in the 17th century and the strong focus on flourishing and decoration which were more frequently added to letters or words. - Slipcase only slightly worn around the edges, marbled paper on the spine of the folder cracked. Limp vellum detached from the leaves and worn, first three leaves and 11th leaf loose, paper edges frayed, some foxing throughout (especially to the blanks), a few stains barely affecting the text, first blank at the end almost gone and last blank half gone, but overall in fine condition.
German manuscript on paper (watermark: crowned double-headed eagle, counter-sign CH), probably by two or three different hands. 196 unnumbered ff. with 197 written pages. Contemporary half vellum with remains of ties, 4to (158 × 200 mm). Loosely inserted between the leaves are 9 slips of paper in various sizes, some folded and written on several sides, containing additional recipes (including the remainder of a letter, addressed to the book's owner in Ischl), as well as a strip of cotton cloth from the 17th or early 18th century. An extensive, privately compiled medical manuscript, owned and in all likelihood largely written by a patrician lady from Ischl in the Austrian Salzkammergut region. The recipes contained appear to some extent based on popular tradition, but more frequently on Paracelsian sources and generally on the Paracelsian-inflected pharmacology and chemical medicine of the Renaissance. A relevant example is provided by the very first recipe, "daß gerechte Froschlaichpflaster" - a frogspawn bandage on a white lead basis, as it was frequently applied by surgeons as early as the 16th century to advance wound healing: "Froschlaich 2 lb., Baumöll 1½ Virting, Wein Essig 3 loth. Lass es mit ein andter sieden bis die Feichtigkeith verraucht und nur daß Öll verbleibe, dan du mues es hernach durch ein [Sieb] durchseihen, daß die schwartzen Eier in und ander Unflath darvon weg khumbt, hernach due darein Bleyweis 8 loth, Bleyzucker 2 loth, lass es wider ein wenig sieden und du must alleweil riechen, damit du es nicht verbrenest, so dan duehe darein Weißwax 1½ Vierting, lass es wider ein wenig sieden, und hernach von Feurer gethan thue darin Weisses Vitriol 1 loth, Rohen Alaun ½ loth, Ca[mp]her 2 Quintl, riche so lang bis es kalt wirdt, hernach mach Zapfen darauß, due es reecht mit Öll wo gaffer darein ist und zächs recht endereinander, so dan ist es bereith." This is followed by "daß gerechte Fontonell Pflaster" (a bandage for the fontanelles) and "Jungfrau Milch" (virgin's milk), then - after several blank leaves - a series of recipes concerning the head, including "das edle Khopff Bulffer" ("the noble cephalic powder"), "fier die Pluet Schuß im Khopf" ("for when blood rushes to one's head"), "fyer das Haubt Wehe der Khinter" ("for children's headaches"), "Wann ein Personn verwüret ist in Haubt" ("when a person is confused in his head"), "fuer den Wuremb im Khopf" ("for the worm in the head"), "füer den großen Khopf Wehe" ("for the severe headache"), etc. Among the further recipes are "ein khöstliches Wuntt Trankh" ("a delicious wound potion"), "Khrafft Wasser vor den Schlag" ("strong water for a stroke"), "Etles Trisanet Pulver, vor den Schlag, vor Schwacheit des Herzen, Bletigkeit des Mang, der Löber" ("noble trisanet powder for strokes, weakness of the heart, and ailments of the stomach and the liver"), "Inwendig grosse Hizen" ("great inner heat"), etc. Other recipes concern the internal organs and respiratory tract ("Räynigung des Mangs", "Geschwollen Mangen", "Wer hart umb Prust", "Vor Huesten", "Vör Lung- und Lebersucht, Huesten, auch Stäckhen auf der Prust"), gynecology and obstetrics ("Wann ein Frau nit gebehren khan", "Wann das Khünntt nit kan ledig werten", "Von Mangel der monatlichen Zeit"), as well as dentistry ("Vor Zahn Wehe", "Zahn ohne Schmerzen herauszunemben", "Vor Munntfeille"); also, recipes for emetics ("Vor Erbrechen daß der Mangen nichts behalte") and for various ointments ("zu den Prysten", "vor Reissen und Grimmen"), tapeworms ("vor Wuremb im Leib"), enemas ("Von Clystier- und Purgiern"), and "how to push the intestines back into the body when the bowels have fallen out" ("so einen der Leib Tarmb ausgeht, den Layb Darmb hinein zu bringen"). Some recipes reveal the scientific limits of their age (one captioned "vor Anwax ter Khüntter", intended to make children grow faster, is essentially a rose ointment to be soaked in a cloth which is bound on the child's head); others fall into the province of the quasi-magical ("Krumpe und lammbe Gliter zu haillen, es wirt die selbe verzaubert, und also gemacht worten, mit der Hilffe Gotes abzuhelfen", "Wahrer Gebrauch und Nuzung des Pulvers des Lebens"). Although several hands appear to have contributed to this manuscript, a large part is unquestionably by the writer of the title page, whom we may identify with its owner. Maria Magdalena Seeauer, born on 7 June 1668, was descended from the well-known dynasty of Ischl salt loaders who can be traced to the 14th century. She was a daughter of the local salt loader, alderman and judge Simon Seeauer (1615-1704) and sister of Johann Ignaz Seeauer (1661-1709), who succeeded his father in all his offices. Ten days after her 19th birthday Maria Magdalena married, in Ischl, the 36-year-old Johann Richard Winkler from Grieskirchen; she began compiling the present recipe book the following year. She died in her native city on 9 March 1745, having survived her husband by 27 years. - Binding somewhat rubbed; paper insignificantly browned. Nine leaves in the book's interior show slight worming, occasionally barely touching letters, but altogether clean and unstained, uncommonly well preserved for a manuscript apparently kept in constant use. The piece of cotton cloth inserted between two leaves likely represents the authentic type of a cloth bandage used for applying ointments in the early 18th century.
Oblong 4to (222 x 172 mm). 1 blank leaf, 50 unnumbered written pages, 2 blank leaves. German manuscript (dark brown ink) on paper, fine calligraphy by a single scribal hand (titles and headlines in blackletter, text in cursive script). Later limp vellum wrappers, spine reinforced with a fragment of a 15th century vellum manuscript with red and blue rubrication. Stored in a modern custom-made half morocco case. Calligraphically appealing 16th century manuscript on the art and terminology of hunting and falconry, written by a professional scribe for an unidentified sponsor, though likely for a highly placed personage or member of the nobility in South-Western Germany. The manuscript contains contemporary extracts from the end of the third part of Noe Meurer's "Von Forstlicher Oberherrlichkeit und Gerechtigkeit", an important study of hunting first published in Pforzheim by Georg Rab in 1560, and then, in expanded form, in Frankfurt, by Georg Rab & Weigand Han, in 1561. Meurer (born ca. 1525 in Memmingen in Southern Swabia, died in Heidelberg in 1583) was one the first German legal scholars to write in his native tongue rather than in Latin; among his works are treatises on the law of inheritance and of water. In particular, he was the first German author to publish monographs on the subjects of forestry and hunting, not as mere chapters within the larger framework of agriculture, for which reason he was of great importance for the study of forestry in the 16th century. The present extracts comprise the only parts of Meurer's book concerned with the practical, technical aspects of hunting, rather than with its legal foundations. They include sections on hounds, canned and net hunting, the hunting of stags, roes, boars, foxes, rabbits, bears, wolves, ibexes and chamois, as well as a section on how to tell a deer from a roe when viewing the animal from the rear. The final part is dedicated to hunting with falcons and hawks. The entire section on deer ("Die Hürsch zu suchen, wie auch der Hürsch für der Hinndin zue erkennen etc.") is not part of the first edition of Meurer's book, suggesting that the scribe based his work on the second edition of 1561 (leaves LXXXIIII verso to XCVII verso). Yet the order of the individual sections does not follow the published book in all particulars, and the present arrangement would seem to reflect the scribal editor's or the sponsor's private considerations. - The paper stock for this manuscript is from a paper mill in Meurer's native Memmingen (watermark: Gothic letter "P" - or more likely "Q" - with the arms of Memmingen: Briquet III, no. 8750 and p. 468; cf. Briquet I, p. 72; specimens dating from the late 1580s to 1590s). - Very well preserved and legible, untrimmed manuscript from the collection of the Swiss-born German merchant and entrepreneur Hans Dedi (1918-2016), chairman of the "Quelle" mail order concern and the Schickedanz business group, with his bookplate in the marbled solander case and his gilt signet on the spine. Cf. VD 16, M 5017.
Folio (ca. 375 x 250 mm). (13) ff., 1 blank leaf. German manuscript on paper. With 10 pen-and-ink drawings in original hand colour. Contemporary boards with manuscript title label to cover. Fine German manuscript on how to increase the efficiency of German salt production. In German cities such as Halle, a major centre of the salt industry, the production of cooking salt was based essentially on the use of wells that provided a high concentration solution of brine. Extracted from the wells, the brine was boiled and refined to salt, a process carried out by specialized personnel - the "salters", who worked in small huts or cots ("Kothen" in German) located in close proximity to the wells. - Presumalby prepared by an experienced salter, the present manuscript gives detailed instructions on the efficient construction and heating of hearths and the sustainment of the required heat, as well as the correct handling of boiling pans. The text concludes with a recommendation of the highly profitable pratice of concentrating the brine using sea salt, as was common in Dutch salt production. - The charming illustrations show the interior of the cots with their various boiling and concentration pans, including diagrammatic depictions of masonry and the arrangement of pans, grids and hearths, as well as a scene of everyday life in the cot. - Engraved bookplate of the artillery school and stamp of ownership of the Hanover military library to front pastedown, the latter also to the first page. Later bookplate of the historian Hanns Freydank (1892-1971) to pastedown. Freydank is the author of numerous publications on salt production with a focus on his native Halle. - Spine and corners somewhat rubbed. Block damaged; paper slightly browned, occasional spots. A rare survival.
Folio (433 x 280 mm). 17 ff. Coloured ink on coloured paper. Contemp. half cloth with gilt-stamped spine title. Highly original and exceptionally colourful manuscript in elegant calligraphy, written in inks of various colours (mainly white, blue, red, and green) on glossy and silk paper in alternating colours. The writing is surrounded by elaborate calligrams showing birds and penwork. The text itself consists mainly of descriptions of various kinds of birds (such as the magpie, quail, pheasant, peacock, jay, and swallow), but also includes bits on bears and hedgehogs; another page offers two capital blackletter alphabets instead. The calligrapher has succeeded in marrying content, script, and image, achieving a unique and impressive synthesis, undoubtedly penned with a feather quill. - Binding insignificantly rubbed; extremeties bumped. The delicate pages show occasional slight signs of wrinkled; the silk papers are browned. Several pages show ink bleeding or offsetting on the reverse.
4to (175 x 202 mm). German manuscript in brown ink with red underlinings on paper by two hands. Title, 356, (16) pp., of which 162 written. The final 8 leaves with an index added later, probably mid-18th century. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. A wide-ranging compilation of medicinal recipes and treatments for a great variety of ailments, certainly drawing on various medical and pharmacological texts, although only one specific reference is made, namely to Melchior Sebisch's 1580 translation of Charles Estienne's agricultural treatise "L'agriculture et maison rustique" (Paris 1564). A medicine for the treatment of aphasia following a stroke ("Wann einen Menschen der Schlag gerühret und sprachlos liegt") is said to have been successfully used to treat Paul von Gröbel, princely hunter of Christian I of Saxony in the 2nd half of the 16th century (p. 11). The third personal mention in the manuscript, a "Doctor Longobart", who lends his name to a powder with several cold-related applications, seems to be folkloristic. - Many recipes are organized by illnesses or conditions like toothaches and gum disease, sleeplessness, epidemics affecting children and old people ("Zu heilen die schweren Seuch in Kindern und alten Leuten"), the plague ("In Zeit der Pest"); others stand for themselves like a miraculous rejuvenation tonic ("Ein wunderbarlich gleichsam göttliches und heimliches Wasser zumachen, welches alle alte verlebte Läuthe Verjüngen", p. 41), a "delicious stomach and chest powder" (p. 46 f.), or a tonic named after Emperor Charles ("Keyser Carll Kraftwasser", p. 47 f.). On pp. 83-105 follows an unrelated copy of a short treatise on gold ore with a description of locations for gold panning in Bohemia. The title suggests that the text on "finding gold mountains and gold washing locations" had been sent by a Venetian named Gratianus Gündell to Jacob Schaden of St. Gallen in 1530 or 1560. Among the locations indicated are: "Frauenstein bey Freyberg [...] Das rothe Wetterhaus [...] Der Eisenberg im Böhmen [...] Brun in Böhmen [...] Radebergh [...] Neunmarck [...] Gera und Weida [...] Weidenstein [...] Hammerberg [...] Schnegrube [...]". Further recipes listed are a remedy for nose bleeds ("Wieder das Bluten aus der Nasen", p. 149) and a cure for worms in children and old people ("Für die Würme der Kinder und alten Leutt", p. 237). The curious final pages present advice on how to tell the age of a horse ("Wie man das Alter eines Pferdes erkennen soll", pp. 335-337) with reference to Melchior Sebisch's 1580 publication, an alchemistic "piece" that had supposedly been commissioned by a member of the Bohemian Rosenberg family (p. 340 f.), three spells to stop a fire, including one that demands a shirt that has been worn by a virgin when she had her first period ("ein Hemdt, so eine Jungfrau ahn ihrem Leib getragen, so sie erstmals ihre Zeit bekam") and that is "used by all gypsies and is reliable" (p. 347 f.), a method for turning red roses partly white and instructions on how to keep beer from going stale due to contaminated kegs. - Covers somewhat soiled and warped. Some foxing and browning throughout; occasional collector's notes in pencil. A fine survival.
12mo (65 x 90 mm). 109 ff. (numbered i, 108 in pencil by a later hand); thus complete. Latin bastarda on vellum. With blue and red Lombardic initials throughout, a few (ff. 31r, 49r, 69r, 71v, 74v) with penwork decoration. Contemporary wooden boards (wants spine; lower cover cracked). A pretty, pocket-size prayer book, not classifiable as belonging to any known collection. Based on the unsophisticated penwork and the litany, it was probably created in the (northern) Rhineland. Title (fol. 1r): "Exhortacio salutaris terrorem iudicii ac timorem incutiens divinem ul[tionis]; incipit "Expergiscere o miserabilis homo" (for the beginning, but not the remainder of the text, cf. Nicolaus de Saliceto, Antidotarius animae). Contains numerous indulgences, including (fol. 80r/v) one by Pope Alexander VI in honour of Saint Anne (1494; she is also the first female Saint mentioned in the litany, fol. 38v). As the indulgence granted by Pope Sixtus IV for performing the prayer "Ave sanctissima virgo" was doubled by Pope Julius II (1503-13) (cf. fol. 67r), the date can be assumed with a high degree of certainty as after 1503. The penitential psalms (fol. 31r ff.) are followed by the kyrie and litany (37v-38v: with SS. Gereon and Odila); fols. 88r-97v contain prayers to the Saints (including SS. Rochus [fol. 93v], Odilia [fol. 95r], Gertrude [fol. 95v], Apollonia [fol. 96r], Mary Magdalene and Ursula [fol. 97r]). - Later quotation from Maleachi 4:2 in the margin of the first page ("orietur vobis timentibus Deum sol iustitiae"); the blank verso contains a longer note "Dum quis intrat Ecclesiam Auffer a nobis quis Domine cunctas iniquitates nostras" etc.; some additional early modern marginalia. Between leaves 67 and 68 an interesting stain shows that a contemporary reader forgot his pince-nez, which he must have used as a bookmark, within the book. Ownership "Co[...] Rabenau" (2nd half of 18th c.) on inside upper cover. Wooden boards show traces of a former calf binding, with the impression of an armorial stamp on the upper cover; lower cover split near the binding. Right edge of upper cover, as well as lower edge, show traces of gnawing (no loss to text).
Folio. Latin ms., ink on vellum. 156 unnumbered pp., 27 lines. Contemporary vellum binding with attractive giltstamped tendril border, fleuronnée corner stamps, gilt spine and two different giltstamped heraldic supralibros on the covers. All edges gilt. Inner margin shows two holes drilled through covers and interior for a decorative cord with the seal (now lost). Remains of ties. A collection of copies of Habsburgian documents relating to the Gonzaga family and the War of the Mantuan Succession, compiled by the Imperial Registry and signed by the Emperor, Ferdinand III. The ensemble, which comprises documents by Frederick III, Maximilian I, Charles V, Maximilian II, Rudolf II, Matthias, Ferdinand II, etc., was probably drawn up for Duke Ferrante III Gonzaga, Duke of Guastalla (1618-78), to record and secure his claims upon the Duchy of Mantua (claims which lay in the interest of the Imperial family), whereas the War of Succession had ended a few years previously with Mantua becoming part of the French sphere of influence. - The Gonzaga family had ruled Mantua since 1328; in 1530, Federico II Gonzaga assumed the title of a Duke of Mantua. Upon gaining control over the counties of Monferrato and Guastalla in the mid-16th century, the family reached their apogee of political, financial, and cultural importance. When Francesco IV Gonzaga died in 1612 without leaving a male successor, he was succeeded by his brothers Ferdinando and Vincenzo, both cardinals without children. Upon the death of Vincenzo II Gonzaga in 1627 the direct male line of the House of Gonzaga became extinct, causing a war of succession. Emperor Ferdinand II, husband of Eleanor Gonzaga, Vincenzo's sister, sought to re-attach the Duchy of Mantua to the Holy Roman Empire by transferring it to the Spanish-Imperial line of Gonzaga-Guastalla. This objective was opposed by the older line of Gonzaga of Nevers and Rethel, supported by France. The conflict ended when Sweden entered the Thirty Years' War and Ferdinand required his troops in the principal theatre of combat. The Duke of Nevers and Rethel became lord of the devastated and depopulated counties of Mantua and Monferrato, and France gained a foothold in Upper Italy. (Three quarters of a century later, however, the Imperial cause was to triumph after all: in 1708, the War of Spanish Succession re-attached Mantua to the Empire, while the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato sided with France.) - The present compilation is intended to document the legal succession of the House of Gonzaga-Guastalla on the basis of archival sources; this goal is underscored by the Imperial arms on the upper cover (double-headed eagle with quartered escutcheon showing the fesses of Gonzaga and the Bohemian lion, bordered by a tendril desgin enclosing the four evangelists) and Guastalla's lion rampant within a crowned shield on the back cover. The documents repeatedly invoke the feudal righty of the House of Gonzaga-Guastalla, especially in the areas of Castiglione delle Stiviere and Castel Goffredo: "Ad perpetuam rei memoriam recognoscimus, ac postum facimus tenore praesentium universis, quod cum nobis submissime exponendum curavit. Illustris Ferdinandus Gonsaga, Priceps Castilionis à Stiveriis, Consanguineus et Princeps Noster charissimus, quem ad modum maiores olim sui ab Augustissimis Romanorum Imperatoribus & Regibus Praedecessoribus Nostris sacratissime recordationis super Marchionatu Castilionis à Stiverys, & Castro Guiffredi cum omnibus suis pertinentys investiti. Pater verò suus quondam Franciscus Gonsaga de eodem Marchionatu Castilionis et permutatione Castri Giuffredi [...] Matthias Romanorum Imperator semper Augustus [...] agnoscimus & notum facimus tenore praesentium universis. Quod cum Illustris Franciscus Gonsaga Princeps Castilioni à Stiverys, consanguineus et princeps noster charissimus, demisse Nobis esponi curavit, non tantum Maiores suos, verum etiam se ipsum à Predecessoribus Nostris Divis Romanorum Imperatoribus & Regibus praeclarissimae memoriae de Marchionatu Castilioni à Stiverys, et de Castro, et Terra Castri Guiffredi cum omnibus suis pertinentys investium, alijsque insignibus privilegys ornatum fuisse [...]". Signed at the end by Emperor Ferdinand III, with counter-signatures by the Aulic Councillors Conrad Hiltprandt and Johann Walderode.
Small folio (242 x 304 mm). Latin ms. in red and black ink on sturdy paper. (2), XIII, 117, (5) pp. (and several blanks). With 12 full-page washed and mounted ink drawings. Ruled throughout, with black and red borders surrounding text and illustrations. Contemp. brown calf, covers and spine elaborately giltstamped. Gilt brocade endpapers. All edges gilt. Illustrated late Baroque book of hours, written in clean and regular characters. Apart from its magnificent binding, the volume boasts a remarkable cycle of mariological illustrations. The washed ink drawings are evidently the work of a trained artist whose workmanship were fully abreast with contemporary style and technique (including the occasional Rocaille touches). Especially the elegant treatment of the figures and the fine execution of landscape and details of clothing and interiors suggest one of the more significant mid-18th century Tyrolean painters; the characteristic faces with their pronounced eye areas are so similar to those known from the work of Joseph Adam Ritter von Mölk (1718-94) and his circle that an attribution appears justified. - The dated ms. ownership at the beginning ("Soc. Stae. Ursulae oenipontani 1751") locates this manuscript with the Ursuline monastery at Innsbruck, for whom it was probably drawn up in the first place. The Baroque décor of the monastery and church, founded in 1691, was entirely destroyed in the 19th century. - The magnificent binding shows a double ornamental border and corner fleurons on the covers. Splendid brocade endpapers with large curved scrollwork, blossoms and leaves on red gold background. A unique, near-immaculate specimen.
- [Bruxelles] Vendredi 12 mai 1865, 13,2x20,8cm, 1 page sur un feuillet remplié. - Lettre autographe signée de Charles Baudelaire, rédigée à l'encre, adressée à sa mère. Quelques soulignements, biffures et corrections de l'auteur. Cette lettre a été publiée pour la première fois dans Charles Baudelaire, Dernières lettres inédites à sa mère en 1926. Ancienne collection Armand Godoy n° 197. Précieuse lettre de l'époque bruxelloise, exil volontaire du poète à la fin de sa vie. «?Il est douteux que j'habite quelque part à Paris. Je crois que j'habiterai surtout une voiture dans laquelle je ferai, si je peux, toutes mes courses en un ou deux jours.?» Angoissé par Paris - cité des vices et des créanciers - il appréhende cette brève visite. L'exil bruxellois est en effet synonyme d'échec pour le poète qui ne cesse, depuis son arrivée en Belgique, de repousser son retour en France. Pourtant, impatient de quitter le plat pays qu'il exècre, il raille ses autochtones?: «?On est lent ici.?» Le poète, comme jadis l'élève de dix-sept ans qui affirmait à sa mère qu'il allait se ressaisir, promet : «?Me voici en mesure d'accomplir tous mes plans. Je ne sais comment t'exprimer ma reconnaissance ; et je crois que la meilleure manière sera d'exécuter mes promesses.?» Littéralement obsédé par cette mère sacrée «?qui hante [son] cur et [son] esprit?», le «?fils reconnaissant?» s'estime incapable d'atteindre sa destinée poétique sans une attention maternelle exclusive. [ENGLISH DESCRIPTION ON DEMAND]
- Paris 11 février 1844, 10,4x13,6cm, quatre pages sur deux feuillets. - Trois lettres autographes signées par Gérard de Nerval (2 pages signées «?Gérard?»), Théophile Gautier (1 page) et un troisième scripteur qui n'a pas signé (1 page), adressées à Louis Desessart. La troisième lettre a été rédigée par un certain «?Robert?» (cf. la lettre de Nerval) Louis Desessart, éditeur attitré de Théophile Gautier, publia avec Barba la pièce Léo Burckart de Nerval en 1839. À la suite d'ennuis financiers, il fut contraint de se réfugier «?dans cette triste et charmante ville de Bruxelles?». Les trois amis rédigent ce courrier à Paris, où ils se sont retrouvés au retour du long voyage en Orient qu'entreprit Nerval?: «?J'ai vu l'Égypte 6 mois?; puis j'ai séjourné en Syrie 3 mois - à Constantinople 4 mois le reste en route. C'est assez beau. Je ne m'amuse plus qu'en voyage et je vis double autant que je puis.?» Ce voyage force l'admiration de Théophile Gautier qui ne se rendra que des années plus tard en Turquie et en Egypte?: «?Je suis à Paris et voudrais être au Caire d'où Gérard arrive.?» L'exotisme des voyages lointains contraste ici violemment avec la tristesse et l'austérité de l'Europe?: «?Quelle tristesse que Paris quand on revient des pays éclairés du soleil.?» (Nerval) D'autant plus que, loin des rêves d'évasion, Paris rime avec travail et mélancolie?: «?Nous sommes comme les gens malades qui ne se trouvent bien nulle part. Je crois que le bon temps est passé et que les bonnes heures d'autrefois où nous disions tant de sages folies ne reviendront plus. À quoi sert de vivre puisqu'il faut travailler et qu'on ne peut ni voir ses amis ni leur écrire ni rien faire de ce qu'on voudrait ??» (Gautier) Les deux écrivains sont très compatissants quant à l'exil belge de leur ami, Bruxelles apparaissant ici comme la capitale du spleen?: «?Quoi?! Vous êtes encore dans cette triste et charmante ville de Bruxelles?! [...] Bruxelles est encore plus noir, pauvre garçon?!?» (Nerval) Cette triple lettre a en réalité été rédigée à l'initiative de «?Robert?»?: «?N'est-ce pas, mon cher ami, que je suis habile à faire oublier mes torts ? [...] je trouve le moyen en compensation, de t'envoyer ces autographes de deux de tes [...] camarades, de tes plus doux souvenirs, de deux célébrités qui malgré toutes leurs sympathies, toute leur affection pour toi, ne t'eussent jamais écrit un mot, si je ne leur avais pas taillé leurs plumes, affrété leur papier, comme à de petits enfants boudeurs, et si je ne leur eusse dit?: écrivez tout de suite, tout de suite à l'exilé que vous aimez le mieux.?» [ENGLISH DESCRIPTION ON DEMAND]
- 1er avril 1793, 15,6x20cm, une page sur un feuillet. - Lettre autographe inédite datée et signée, rédigée à l'encre noire et adressée à un notaire. Au verso, probablement de la main d'un secrétaire, la mention « Sade du 1er avril 1793 » ; sous cette mention, une courte phrase de la main du Marquis : « pour que j'écrire à Gaufridy de lui envoyer de l'argent ». Quelques pliures transversales inhérentes à la mise sous pli. Longue lettre adressée à un notaire alors que le Marquis, rendu à la liberté le 2 avril 1790 par l'abolition des lettres de cachet, est libre et tente de mettre de l'ordre dans ses affaires. Après la Révolution ses fils ont émigré et il ne les a pas suivis. Son nom figure pourtant sur la liste des personnes ayant quitté la France en raison des troubles révolutionnaires : « J'espère qu'avec tout cela je parviendrai à faire effacer mon nom de dessus cette fatale liste d'émigrés. » Soucieux de ne pas être considéré comme un ci-devant Marquis en cette période précédant la Terreur, il insiste sur la persécution dont il serait victime malgré sa bonne volonté : « C'est une atrocité sans exemple que de m'avoir joué un pareil tour à moi qui n'ai pas quitté Paris depuis la révolution, et qui depuis cette époque n'ai pas cessé de donner les preuves les moins équivoques de mon patriotisme ». Sade dénonce également dans cette missive la complexité des rouages de l'administration française après la Révolution : « Je viens d'envoyer à M. Lions le certificat de résidence qui convient et j'y ai joint une pétition au district qu'il me dit être (...) essentielle. » Impécunieux, il prie son avocat « d'exciter le zèle de ceux qui [lui] doivent et de les engager à compter le plus d'argent qu'il percevront tout de suite à M. Gauffridi (sic) » et n'hésite pas à se montrer complaisant pour arriver à ses fins : « ne me ménagez pas alors je vous en conjure (...) conservez moi toujours votre soin et votre amitié (...) Je vous embrasse et salue de tout mon cur. » Les efforts de Sade seront vains, en décembre 1793 il est incarcéré aux Madelonettes, avant d'être admis, grâce à sa bonne amie Mme Quenet, à la maison Coignard de Picpus, un établissement de santé abritant les riches suspects. Intéressante lettre inédite montrant l'infortuné Marquis aux abois, lors de l'un de ses rares moments de liberté. [ENGLISH DESCRIPTION ON DEMAND]
- Nrf, Paris 1932, 12x19cm, broché. - New edition. Spine very discreetly restored, a few fold marks on the front cover. Exceptional copy signed and inscribed by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "For Jean Lucas. With all my true friendship cemented by sand (the play on words is bad but the heart is there). In memory of the beautiful orgies of Port Etienne." ("Pour Jean Lucas. Avec toute ma vraie amitié cimentée par le sable (l'astuce est mauvaise mais le coeur y est). En souvenir des belles orgies de Port Etienne." with a drawing of a naked girl. Saint-Exupéry inscribed this copy of his first book to Jean Lucas, a fellow pilot at l'Aéropostale, who prepared with him in 1935 his famous Paris-Saigon raid during where he famously crashed "in the center of the desert" of Libya. His accident as well as the stopovers in Port Etienne with Lucas will be told in his masterpiece Wind, Sand, and Stars. Lucas will celebrate at his side the great literary success of this last novel (winner Grand Prix of the French Academy) at Consuelo's flat in Paris, with writer Léon-Paul Fargue and the Werth couple. In this long and humorous inscription, the writer evokes moments spent in 1931 in Port-Etienne, now Nouadhibou in Mauritania, where "Lucas, head of the airport, turns, night and day, the gramophone which, so far from life, speaks to us a language half lost, and causes a melancholy without object which curiously resembles thirst" (Wind, Sand, and Stars). In this refuge where "the threats are dampened by so much sand" a fraternity itself "cemented by the sand" was born between these pioneers of aviation. Braving all imaginable dangers, Saint-Exupéry flew mail from France to Casablanca in a Laté 26. He recalls here his stopovers, the "beautiful orgies of Port-Etienne" in the burning solitude of these remote lands: "Located on the edge of unsettled territories, Port-Etienne is not a city. There is a fort, a hangar and a wooden hut for the crews of our country" he writes in Wind, Sand, and Stars. In the company of Lucas and the captain-governor, he kills boredom with chess games, conjuring tricks, naval battles, games of hangman, long stories of flights and girls, as the explicit ink drawing at the bottom of the page seems to attest... many crazy evenings of which this letter and this drawing preserve the memory. One night in July 1939, Lucas cured him of his "blank page syndrome" by locking him in his room so that he could finish his preface to the book by aviator Anne Morrow Lindbergh. At the end of the war, the inconsolable Léon Werth, to whom Saint-Exupéry dedicated The Little Prince, wrote to Jean Lucas: "The armistice without Tonio is not quite the armistice". An exceptional gesture of friendship from the "Lord of the Sands" to his faithful brother in arms. Lucas was one of the rare intimates the writer confided in (Saint Exupéry, Une vie à contre courant, p. 264). [FRENCH VERSION FOLLOWS] Nouvelle édition. Dos très discrètement restauré, quelques marques de pliure sur les plats de couverture. Précieux envoi autographe signé d'Antoine de Saint-Exupéry : "Pour Jean Lucas. Avec toute ma vraie amitié cimentée par le sable (l'astuce est mauvaise mais le coeur y est). En souvenir des belles orgies de Port Etienne." enrichi d'un dessin représentant une jeune fille nue. Saint-Exupéry adresse ce très bel envoi sur son premier livre à Jean Lucas, compagnon de vol à l'Aéropostale, qui préparera avec lui en 1935 son célèbre raid Paris-Saïgon lors duquel l'écrivain-aviateur s'écrasera « au centre du désert » de Lybie. Son célèbre accident ainsi que les escales à Port Etienne avec Lucas seront contés dans Terre des Hommes. Lucas célébrera à ses côtés chez Consuelo rue Barbet de Jouy, avec Léon-Paul Fargue et le couple Werth, le grand succès littéraire de ce dernier roman et son obtention du Grand Prix de l'Académie Française. Dans cette longue dédicace, l'écrivain fait allusion aux moments passés en 1931 à Port-Etienne, actuelle Nouadhibou en Mauritanie
- Nohant 21 décembre 1867, 13,4x20,7cm, deux feuillets sous chemise et étui. - Lettre autographe de George Sand adressée à Gustave Flaubert datée du 21 décembre 1867, 8 pages sur deux feuillets rempliés. Publiée dans la Correspondance, XX, pp. 642-645. Issue d'une des plus belles correspondances littéraires du siècle, cette lettre écrite à la veille de Noël 1867 est un sublime témoignage de la franche amitié entre George Sand, le «?vieux troubadour?» et Gustave Flaubert baptisé «?cul de plomb?» après avoir décliné son invitation à Nohant pour achever l'Éducation sentimentale. Malgré les dix-sept ans qui les séparent, leurs tempéraments opposés et leur conception de la vie divergentes, le lecteur est saisi par la tendresse mais aussi l'étonnante verdeur de cette longue confidence de George Sand. Alors au faîte de sa gloire littéraire et à la joie de son théâtre de Nohant, Sand s'entretient longuement de politique, de leur séparation, de leur conception du travail d'écrivain, de la vie même. Dans cette lettre à l'allure de «?courant de conscience?», Sand couche naturellement et librement sur le papier huit pages de conversations avec l'écrivain, qui ne fait que de trop rares et brèves apparitions à Nohant?: «?Mais comme je bavarde avec toi?! Est-ce que tout ça t'amuse' Je le voudrais pour qu'une lettre de causerie te remplaçât un de nos soupers que je regrette aussi, moi, et qui seraient si bons ici avec toi, si tu n'étais un cul de plomb qui ne te laisses pas entraîner, à la vie pour la vie?», tandis que chez Flaubert, alors plongé dans l'écriture de l'Éducation sentimentale, la devise est plutôt l'art pour l'art. Cette fin d'année 1867 est marquée par la douleur de la disparition d'un «?presque frère?», François Rollinat, que Sand apaise par ses lettres à Flaubert et les soirées animées à Nohant?: «?Voilà comme je vis depuis 15 jours que je ne travaille plus. [...] Ah'?! quand on est en vacances, comme le travail, la logique, la raison semblent d'étranges balançoires?». Sand lui reprochait volontiers de travailler sans relâche dans sa robe de chambre, «?l'ennemi de la liberté?», alors qu'elle, courait par monts et par vaux, de Cannes à la Normandie, jusque sur les terres de l'écrivain qu'elle avait visitées en septembre. À cette occasion, Sand avait relu avec bonheur Salammbô dont quelques lignes se retrouvent dans Mademoiselle Merquem, sa dernière uvre en date. Leur amitié littéraire et virile, comme celle avec Rollinat, défia toute la vieille garde des littérateurs qui affirmaient l'impossibilité d'une liaison sincère entre l'homme et la femme. Sand, qu'on a tour à tour qualifié de lesbienne, de nymphomane, rendue célèbre pour ses amours retentissantes et si diverses, entame une longue et riche correspondance avec Flaubert pour qui elle est une mère et un vieil ami. Le «?vieux troubadour?» ou «?vieux cheval?» ne se considérait même plus comme femme, mais comme un être quasi-homme, rappelant ses travestissements de jeunesse et son formidable mépris des barrières entre les sexes. À Flaubert qui avait écrit à celle qu'on surnomma la «?papesse des gynandres?»?: «?Pour mieux tirer à l'arc, elles s'écrasaient le téton?», en évoquant les Amazones?; Sand répond «?Je ne suis pas dans ton idée qu'il faille supprimer le sein pour tirer l'arc. J'ai une croyance tout à fait contraire pour mon usage et que je crois bonne pour beaucoup d'autres, probablement pour le grand nombre?». Guerrière certes, mais guerrière pacifique, Sand a volontiers adopté les usages d'un monde de lettrés misogynes, tout en ayant su rester elle-même?: «?Je crois que l'artiste doit vivre dans sa nature le plus possible. À celui qui aime la lutte, la guerre?; à celui qui aime les femmes, l'amour?; au vieux qui, comme moi, aime la nature, le voyage et les fleurs, les roches, les grands paysages, les enfants aussi, la famille, tout ce qui émeut, tout ce qui combat l'anémie morale.?» ajoute-t-elle ensuite. Belle évocation de sa «?période verte?», ce passage c
- Paris 25 Juin 1854, 11,5x18,5cm, une page recto-verso. - Handwritten letter dated and signed by Charles Baudelaire to Philoxène Boyer concerning the intriguing Léontine B. Paris 25 Juin 1854 | 11.5 x 18.5 cm | one page recto-verso Handwritten two-page letter, dated 25 June 1854, and signed by Charles Baudelaire to Philoxène Boyer, whom he calls «my dear Lyrique,» in which he apologises for having missed a meeting with him, he confesses his impecuniosity to him and reports to him on the efforts made by Léontine B., an intriguing person who will end up compromising Philoxène Boyer because of his debts, to attend a party to which she is not invited and which holds a certain jealousy: «You surely assume my dear Lyrique, that yesterday something serious happened for me to have missed this meeting. Here is what I would have told you: 1 - my money has not come; but it will come. / 2 - Léontine is obstinate. I am convinced that I have fulfilled my confidence mission very well. I came back three times. When I finally could explain to her carefully that this party was for family, secret, that Boyer himself was supposed to ignore it, - she replied: Well it's no longer a secret since I know.» Finally, while recognising Léontine as «a very original turn of mind» and although the attitude of this troublesome scheme: «causes you worry and I understand...,» Charles Baudelaire pleads for indulgence and leniency: «since she persists so proudly, I would urge you to let the event run. It is after all only the homage of a dizzy mind.» [FRENCH VERSION FOLLOWS] Lettre autographe, datée du 25 Juin 1854, et signée de deux pages de Charles Baudelaire à Philoxène Boyer, qu'il surnomme "mon cher Lyrique", dans laquelle il s'excuse d'avoir manqué un rendez-vous avec lui, lui avoue son impécuniosité et lui rend compte des efforts déployés par Léontine B., une intrigante qui finira par compromettre Philoxène Boyer en raison de ses dettes, pour assister à une fête à laquelle elle n'est pas conviée et qui en retire une certaine jalousie : "Vous présumez bien, mon cher Lyrique, qu'il a fallu hier quelque chose de grave pour que j'aie manqué ce rendez-vous. Voici ce que je vous aurais dit : 1 - mon argent n'est pas venu ; mais il viendra. / 2 - Léontine s'entête. Je suis persuadé que je me suis très bien acquitté de ma commission de confiance. Je suis revenu à la charge trois fois. Quand enfin j'ai pu lui expliquer soigneusement que cette fête était familiale, secrète, que Boyer lui-même était censé l'ignorer, - elle m'a répondu : Eh bien, ce n'est plus un secret puisque je le sais." Enfin, tout en reconnaissant à Léontine "un tour d'esprit très original" et bien que l'attitude de cette encombrante intrigante : "... vous cause de l'inquiétude et je le comprends...", Charles Baudelaire plaide pour l'indulgence et la clémence : "puisqu'elle s'entête si fièrement je vous engagerais à laisser courir l'évènement. Ce n'est après tout que l'hommage d'un esprit étourdi."
- 30 mai 1865, 13,7x21,1cm, une page sur un feuillet. - Lettre autographe signée de Charles Baudelaire adressée à Narcisse Ancelle, rédigée à l'encre noire sur un feuillet de papier bleu. Pliures inhérentes à l'envoi, trois infimes petits trous sans atteinte au texte. Cette lettre a été retranscrite dans les Oeuvres complètes volume 11 publiées en 1949 par L. Conard. Emouvante missive bruxelloise adressée au célèbre notaire familial devenu en 1844 le conseil judicaire de Charles chargé de gérer sa rente et ses dettes exponentielles. Une relation complexe s'établit entre le poète et son tuteur, mêlant nécessité et défiance, mais témoignant néanmoins d'un véritable respect mutuel entre les deux hommes. Cette correspondance, dépourvue de l'affectivité des lettres à sa mère ou des circonvolutions dans ses échanges avec les créanciers, constitue une des plus précieuses sources biographiques du poète. En effet, la dépendance financière de Baudelaire le contraint à une très grande transparence avec son tuteur et chacune de ses lettres à Ancelle résume admirablement ses pérégrinations. Ainsi, cette lettre évoque-t-elle le terrible enlisement du poète en Belgique et son retour sans cesse reporté à Paris: . Lorsqu'il écrit, Baudelaire est encore à Bruxelles à l'Hôtel du Grand Miroir, « 28 rue de la Montagne » (mais il ne faut pas écrire le nom de l'hôtel, sinon les lettres ne lui parviennent pas directement), où il se meurt d'ennui, de maladie et de rancur contre un pays dans lequel, innocemment, il croyait trouver la gloire. Cette annonce de départ imminent pour Paris, "Deux ou trois jours après votre réponse je partirai", fait écho à toutes les promesses similaires que le poète adresse depuis près d'un an à ces correspondants. Celle-ci sera avortée, comme toutes les autres car, comme il l'avoue à Ancelle un quelques mois plus tôt, Paris lui « fait une peur de chien ». Ce n'est qu'en août 1865 qu'il accomplira un ultime et court séjour en France avant son apoplexie fatale. Son retour, "Je suis très attendu à Paris et à Honfleur" était pourtant motivé par une raison impérieuse : négocier avec un éditeur, grâce à l'intervention de Manet, la publication de son recueil de réflexions sur ses contemporains qu'il a déjà intitulé « mon cur mis à nu » et dont le manuscrit est en partie chez sa mère à Honfleur. Nouvel échec, l'uvre ne paraîtra qu'en 1897, 30 ans après la mort de Baudelaire. Mais c'est sans doute la référence aux « deux grands tableaux [qu'il veut] expédier à Honfleur », qui donne tout son sel à cette lettre. Baudelaire évoque en effet sa volonté de rapatrier des peintures de sa collection déposés chez divers prêteurs ou restaurateurs, et dont il avait déjà envoyé une liste à Ancelle quelques mois plus tôt. Parmi ceux-ci, quels sont ceux qu'il voulait ramener à sa mère ? Le portrait de son père, le Boilly, le Manet, un Constantin Guys ? Il n'est fait aucune mention dans les autres lettres de ce transport artistique et du « reste » auquel seront joints les tableaux. Cette volonté d'"expédier à Honfleur" ses biens précieux, témoigne pourtant du désir du poète affaibli de s'installer définitivement dans la « maison-bijou » de sa mère à Honfleur, ilot de sérénité dans lequel Baudelaire rêve d'une paisible retraite où tout ne serait à nouveau « qu'ordre et beauté, luxe, calme et volupté ». Il y retournera en effet, paralysé et muet, mais pour une dernière année d'agonie après sa crise syphilitique. L'hôtel du Grand Miroir, quant à lui, restera sa dernière véritable demeure comme cela sera noté le mardi 3 avril 1866, sur le registre des entrants à la Clinique Saint-Jean : « Nom et prénoms : Baudelaire Charles. « Domicile : France et rue de la Montagne, 28. « Profession : homme de lettres. « Maladie : apoplexie. » Belle lettre à celui qui fut à la fois le persécuteur et le protecteur de Baudelaire. Il accompagna le poète jusqu'à sa mort, avant de devenir l'éxécuteur testamentaire de la famille. [ENGLISH DESCRIPTION ON DEMAND]
- 10 Floréal 13 [30 avril 1805], 18,5x23,1cm, une feuille. - Lettre autographe de Stendhal adressée à sa sur Pauline. 28 lignes rédigées d'une fine écriture à l'encre noire. Prénom « Pauline » de la main de l'expéditeur au bas de la lettre. Numéro d'inventaire « 36 » à l'encre d'une autre main. Deux petites traces de timbre et cachet, une petite déchirure restaurée en marge basse de la page. Quelques infimes pliures inhérentes à la mise sous pli de la lettre. Rare et belle lettre de Stendhal adressée à sa sur Pauline, dans laquelle transparaît toute la sensibilité du jeune homme et son amour pour l'art dramatique plus d'une vingtaine d'année avant ses grands succès romanesques. Cette lettre provient de la correspondance qu'entretint Henri Bayle, ici âgé de vingt-deux ans, avec sa sur Pauline de trois ans sa cadette. Cette véritable liaison épistolaire, qui prit bien vite la forme d'un « journal » - les réponses de Pauline étaient rares - est un jalon essentiel dans la constitution du parcours intellectuel du futur Stendhal. Notre lettre, d'un grand lyrisme, témoigne de la force du lien unissant le jeune écrivain et sa sur : « Serrons-nous l'un contre l'autre ma bonne amie. Nous ne trouverons jamais personne qui aime Pauline comme Henri, ni Henri ne trouvera jamais une plus belle âme que Pauline. » L'emploi de la troisième personne et d'un vocabulaire amoureux érige la jeune femme au rang d'alter ego, d'âme-sur et même de maîtresse idéale. Le jeune Henri est alors justement sous le joug d'une dévorante passion pour la comédienne Mélanie Guilbert qu'il a rencontrée à l'occasion de ses cours de déclamation chez Dugazon : « Je m'en vais peut-être vous ennuyer par ma sombre tristesse. Je sais bien que le sérieux des passions ardentes, n'est pas aimable. » Contrastant avec cette relation passionnée, Pauline symbolise la raison et l'équilibre, une figure qu'Henri, tel un pygmalion peut façonner à loisir. En bon précepteur il conseille : « Apprends par cur des rôles. À propos de déclamation, je t'apprendrai mille choses. Je te porte un Gil Blas, et un Tracy. » On comprend ici l'adoration que Stendhal voua au théâtre dès ses plus jeunes années, tant en qualité de lecteur que de dramaturge (le fonds de ses archives à la Bibliothèque de Grenoble contient près de 700 feuillets d'ébauches) : « Je suis au désespoir de ne pas pouvoir vous porter des Bonnets. Mais attendez, peut-être un jour viendra que...comme dit Ulino. » Cette passion du théâtre, Henri compte bien la transmettre à sa sur : « Nous travaillerons comme des diables, pendant le temps que je resterai à Grenoble. » En contrepied total avec l'éducation des femmes à son époque, il mit un point d'honneur à ce que Pauline soit une personne instruite ; on retrouve d'ailleurs dans plusieurs lettres des injonctions du frère ordonnant à sa sur d'abandonner les travaux d'aiguille au profit des lectures qu'il lui recommande. Véritablement obsédé par le théâtre et persuadé qu'il deviendra un auteur de comédies à succès, il travaille sans relâche : « On m'annonce une chambre où je ne serai pas libre, et où je ne pourrai pas seulement déclamer. Tâche de déranger cet arrangement. » Bien des années avant la rédaction des grands romans qui feront sa renommée, Stendhal comprend déjà que la solitude - thème cher aux écrivains romantiques - est pour lui source de création et affirme : « Un solitaire est jaloux de sa liberté. C'est son plus grand bien comme c'est celui de tous les hommes. » [ENGLISH DESCRIPTION ON DEMAND]
1 manuscrit in-folio br., 1er mars 1810 à septembre 1846, 40 ff. paraphés. . Rappel du titre complet : [ Exceptionnel document manuscrit pour l'histoire de l'édition française 1810-1846 : "Registre aux déclarations" des célèbres Imprimeurs-Libraires Dentu ] "Le présent livre contenant quarante feuillets, et destiné à recevoir l'Inscription par ordre de date du Titre de chaque Ouvrage que voudra imprimer le Sr. Dentu, Imprimeur rue du Pont de Lody n°3, & le nom de l'auteur s'il lui est connu, conformément à l'article 11 du Décret impérial du 5 février 1810, contenant règlement sur l'Imprimerie et la librairie, a été coté & paraphé ... par Nous Louis Nicolas Pierre Joseph Dubois, Commandant de la Légion d'Honneur, Comte de l'Empire, Conseiller d'Etat, Chargé dy 4eme arrondissement de la Police Générale, Préfet de Police du département de la Seine et des Communes de St Cloud, Sevran et Meudon du département de Seine & Oise" Exceptionnel "Registre aux déclarations" d'imprimeur du célèbre Libraire-Imprimeur Dentu, dont la dynastie s'imposa dans l'édition durant 3 générations. Morceau d'histoire de l'édition, et de la grande histoire tout court, il est difficile d'exposer la richesse de contenu du présent registre. "Imprimeur-libraire", Jean-Gabriel Dentu avait commencé en 1782 comme ouvrier-imprimeur. Il établit d'abord sa librairie dans une des boutiques de la galerie de bois du Palais-Royal, avant de s'installer, après divers déménagements, rue du Pont-de-Lodi en 1807. Le présent manuscrit détaille l'intégralité des ouvrages imprimés par les Dentu, pour leur compte ou pour celui de tiers, entre le 1er mars 1810 et septembre 1846. On y trouve à la suite d'un numéro d'ordre, le titre des ouvrages, le nom de leurs auteurs, la date d'impression, l'indication très précieuse du tirage et parfois, le bénéficiaire de l'impression (l'essentiel des impressions étant réalisée directement pour le compte de la Librairie Dentu, et cette dernière indication manque souvent). Avec le premier retour des Bourbons, on note le soudain changement de ton. Le premier ouvrage imprimé après le 20 janvier 1814 l'est le 8 avril, 2 jours après l'abdication de Napoléon : il s'agit d'un in-8 tiré à 500 exemplaires, intitulé : "Robespierre et Bonaparte, ou les deux tyrannies". Légitimiste convaincu, Dentu imprime une "Défense de la Constitution" par Malville, de nombreux ouvrages à la gloire de Louis XVI ("Son Testament et sa Mort" ou encore "Nouvel Elysée ou Monument à la Mémoire de Louis XVI et de sa famille" par Amaury Duval, ouvrage ayant valu à l'auteur de figurer dans le Dictionnaire des Girouettes) et nombre de pamphlets anti-napoléonien. En 1815, pendant les Cent-Jours, tout va très vite : imprimeur et éditeur de "Des lois existantes, et du décret du 9 mai 1815", par Louis-Florian-Paul de Kergorlay (premier tirage le 24 mai à 1000 exemplaires, puis le 27 mai à 2000 exemplaires), Jean-Gabriel Dentu est emprisonné sans jugement. Mais dès le 28 juin, à la chute de l'Aigle, les impressions reprennent (Conspiration de Buonaparte contre Louis XVIII par La Martelière, tiré à 500 exemplaires). Jusqu'en 1819, la plupart des tirages oscillent entre 500 et 2000 exemplaires. Rares sont les tirages qui sortent du lot. Succédant à un premier tirage de 1250 exemplaires imprimés quelques jours auparavant, la deuxième édition de la "Proposition faite à la Chambre des Pairs" par le Vicomte de Chateaubriand tirée à 10000 exemplaires le 19 décembre 1816 puis la troisième imprimée à 6000 exemplaires le 3 janvier 1817 font figures d'exception. A partir de Janvier 1819, il imprime les premières livraisons du journal royaliste "Le Drapeau Blanc" (tirage croissant, passant de 2000 à 3000 puis 4000 exemplaires). Afin de contourner la censure, le journal n'est alors qu'une simple brochure. A partir de juin, les impressions du "journal" cessent chez Dentu (en coïncidence avec la transformation en vrai journal quotidien). A partir de 1820, tirages confidentiels ("Naissance de S.A.R. Mgr. le duc de Bordeaux" par O'Mahony tiré à 100 exemplaires) alternent avec des tirages à 10000 exemplaires (ainsi en est-il des trois tirages du "Petit Catéchisme Politique" de Méjan). Les années suivantes, on relève le 18 décembre 1822 le tirage à 10000 exemplaires du prospectus intitulé "Observations sur la saisie du Journal intitulé "Le Régulateur", puis en mai 1830, celui à 30000 exemplaires du prospectus publicitaire du journal "L'Oriflamme", remplaçant du défunt "Régulateur". A compter de décembre 1823, le registre précise le format et le nombre de feuilles nécessaires pour l'impression. Les 60 feuilles in-8 nécessaires à "L'histoire de la Révolution d'Espagne de 1820 à 1823" (septembre 1824, tirage à 1500 exemplaires) font plutôt figures d'exception, car l'impression de brochures, pamphlets et prospectus domine nettement. Malgré ses amitiés légitimistes, Jean-Gabriel Dentu n'échappe pas aux poursuites et aux agaceries de la justice, mais il sait sortir les griffes si nécessaires : en mars 1826, il imprime son Mémoire en défense contre le Procureur du Roi Jacquinot de Pampelune à 10000 exemplaires (15 feuilles in-8). A compter d'avril 1828, la présentation se resserre fortement. Ce changement d'époque, bientôt changement de régime, coïncide avec le passage de témoin de Jean-Gabriel à son fils Gabriel-André Dentu, plus ardent légitimiste encore que son père. Les "Cancans" imprimés à partir de 1831 ("Cancans français", "cancans patriotiques", "cancans officiels", prémonitoira "cancans en prison"...) lui vaudront 6 mois de prison en 1833 (pour les "Cancans fleurissants", "décisifs" et "inflexibles", tirage de 23000 exemplaires le 30 mai 1832 pour ce dernier). Depuis 1835, on relève en fin de chaque année le visa des autorités de police. A partir de 1838, les numéros d'ordre, suivis jusque-là, vont désormais reprendre à zéro chaque année. De mars 1810 à décembre 1837, on peut compter 1559 impressions différentes. Mais les difficultés qui s'accumulaient pour les Dentu en cette décennie sont visibles dans le manuscrit, car les publications s'essouflent. En juin 1845, la mention suivante est portée de la main du commissaire de police Demoulin : "Nous commissaire de police inspecteur de l'imprimerie et de la librairie A. Demoulin, conformément à l'instruction de Monsieur le Ministre de l'intérieur du 20 juin 1845, transcrivons au présent registre aux déclarations l'article de la loi du 21 octobre 1844 relative à la presse soit l'article 14 de ladite loi : Nul imprimeur ne pourra faire imprimer un écrit avant d'avoir déclaré qu'il se propose de l'imprimer... avant d'avoir fait le dépôt en nombre prescrit d'exemplaires, savoir : à Paris, au Secrétariat de la Direction Générale". Le registre se termine au 36ème feuillet, le 9 septembre 1846 ("Sur l'organisation d'une caisse nationale pour les salariés". On sait par ailleurs que l'imprimerie sera liquidée aux enchères en décembre 1847, le matériel étant repris par Plon, Chaix et Lorilleux. L'imprimeur Dentu est mort, mais l'éditeur lui survivra, en la personne du petit-fils, Edouard Dentu. Français
