LES ÉTOURDIS

Paris: Vente, 1816. Fine.. Royal wedding edition of this popular pre-Revolution comedy, issued on the occasion of the marriage of Princess Marie-Caroline and the Duc de Berry - and from the library of the Duchess herself, who famously sold her books after her failed coup in 1832. The Duchess's wedding occurred only a year after the restoration of the royal House of Bourbon in 1815, following Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo. On that occasion, a special performance of Andrieux's 1787 play was performed for the Duchess, a devotee of the theater. This rare edition was printed as a memento of that event, which was to have massive implications in French history.

The Duchess's new husband was the king's brother; after the Duc de Berry's assassination in 1820, their son became the heir apparent to the French throne. But when the July Revolution of 1830 deposed the Bourbons, the Duchess and her son went into exile. In 1832, however, the Duchess of Berry clandestinely returned to France to lead a rebellion, becoming "the most wanted woman in France" (Samuels). Her coup failed, and she was once again exiled; her story would later be dramatized in fiction by Alexandre Dumas as LES LOUVES DE MACHECOUL (1859).

Realizing she would never return to her beloved library of some 8000 volumes at Chateau Rosny, she made the decision to sell it. It was then one of the most famous libraries in France, with a tremendous range in philosophy, history, travel, science, law, theology, fiction, and theater. This copy's binding and bookplates mark its provenance from the library of the Duchess. It was bound by René Simier (1772-1843), who "had no superior and few rivals during his career" (Ramsden, 190), with his ticket announcing him as "Binder to the King, to Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Berry and to His Royal Highness the Duke of Bordeaux." The binding is in the style the Duchess regularly ordered from Simier, featuring her gilt arms on the boards upon a carefully selected full morocco. It further bears the engraved bookplate of Rosny on the unusual pink endpapers. Books from the Duchess's library still appear with some regularity on the market today, but rarely with such a close personal connection to the Duchess herself. Contemporary full honey morocco, boards stamped in gilt with the arms of the Duchess of Berry, bound by René Simier (with his ticket, "Relieur du Roi, de S.A.R. Madame, Duchesse de Berry et de S.A.R. Mgr le duc de Bordeaux"). Pink glazed endpapers, all edges gilt. [4], 82 pages. Engraved bookplate of the Bibliothèque de Rosny on front pastedown; bookplates also of Alexis Rouart and Eugène Aubry-Vitet. Only trace rubbing and soil.