Maurice ile

1864 · 564j1976 — Bruxelles: Imprimerie de A. Mertens et Fils. Fair with No dust jacket as issued. 1864. First Edition. Hardcover. Is this book the plagiarized source of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion "In his 1870 autobiography Maurice Joly 1829-1878 described how he conceived the idea of a dialogue between Montesquieu and Machiavelli. At that time it was forbidden to openly criticize the regime of Napoleon III but in this way it would be possible through the mouth of Machiavelli to expose the Emperor's motives and methods stripped of the usual camouflage. Thus this book was printed in Belgium and smuggled into France but was immediately seized by the police banned and Joly arrested. Thus few copies survive. Joly's reflections on the despotism of Napoleon III provide insights applicable to authoritarian regimes of today. Moreover something of Joly's insights even survived when his book was transformed into The Protocols of the Elders of Zion thus The Protocols often seem to forecast twentieth-century authoritarianism." - pages 73-76 of Warrant for Genocide by Norman Cohn in which he claims over 160 passages in the Protocols are clearly based on passages in Joly. "The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion were first circulated in Russia in the early years of the twentieth century purportedly an account of a meeting between Jewish leaders in the fall of 1897. A horrible plot to undermine society overthrow governments and destroy Christianity is revealed. The 'minutes' are copied verbatim from A Dialogue in Hades Between Machiavelli and Montesquiou written by Maurice Joly. The 'Protocols' merely substituted the word 'Jew' for Joly's own devils." - Footnotes to pages 423-424 of Mein Kampf Reynal & Hitchcock 1939. Others argue that Joly's work was not the source of The Protocols. We leave it to the reader to decide. 4 i-iii iv 337 1 1 errata p. 18.0 x 12.4 cm. Text in French. Tight maroon quarter leather binding with new leather spine and leather title label. Wear to periphery of older marbled boards which are probably not original. Bookplate of Dr. J.A. Van Praag 1895-1969 inside front board. Van Praag was a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam when he acquired this book in 1931 and wrote his name atop the first blank leaf along with a comment about the purported connection of the book to The Protocols. He also wrote Joly's name on the title page. Pencil notes on pages 47 80 and 94. Evidence of moisture exposure to endpapers and more moderately to contents. Negligible if any waviness to contents. All text clearly legible with pages intact. Includes new custom acid-free clamshell with leather title label upon spine. A rare first edition example of this most contentious work. Provenance: Acquired from an Israeli dealer who purchased it at an Israeli auction which only sells books offered by Israelis. Our research indicates that at least some of Van Praag's books were looted by the Nazis in 1941. Apparently he retired in 1966 and attempted to rebuild his library. However after a fire in his widow's home in 1970 part of the library was destroyed or damaged and she sold the remaining books. We have no definitive way of knowing if this book was looted from Van Praag or if it was if he ever re-acquired it. Perhaps he did re-acquire it only to have it exposed to moisture per our description by firefighting efforts in his widow's home; 12mo . Imprimerie de A. Mertens et Fils hardcover