Paris, Delaunay, 1826.
2 volumes 8vo: I/ (2) ll., 304 pp.; II/ (2) ll., 348 pp. Havana calf, border formed by two black fillets and a blind-stamped palm border, blind-stamped large cathedral plaque struck, spines decorated with raised bands highlighted by a gilt border, panels decorated with a blind-stamped palette, green title and volume pieces, inner blind-stamped border, gilt edges. Cathedral binding of the time signed by Ed. Vivet, a practitioner born in Dresden, active in Paris between 1820 and 1850.
200 x 119 mm.
“Partly original edition, augmented by a volume, in reality a new work, entirely rewritten by Stendhal.
“It is actually an entirely new work, completely rewritten by Stendhal and augmented by a volume.”
The first text, very different, was published in 1817.
“The 1826 edition therefore received considerable additions. Stendhal inserts new anecdotes or develops those he had only sketched or mentioned, such as the anecdotes of Catalani and Gina.” (Chuquet, p. 317).
Stendhal, “cavalry officer,” “who has ceased to consider himself French since 1814,” takes the pseudonym under which he would become famous. The story follows the fictitious itinerary of a journey the author would have made in 1816 and 1817, from Milan to Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, and then from Rome to Florence, Bologna, Ancona, Padua, Venice, and Milan. In reality, Beyle saw Padua and Venice in 1813 and 1815.
In 1826, the work was printed in a second version entirely revised and about doubled in size: The itinerary is simplified, although it includes some deviations (for example in Calabria), allowing Stendhal to elaborate more on anecdotes and customs. Italy at that time allowed the young author to believe he was heading towards happiness: the magnificent development of the arts, the lightness and at the same time the absolute nature of feelings, whether hate or love, the habits of a lively and gallant society made him intensely attentive to the present and curious about this ancient civilization.
Rome, Naples, and Florence seem to him to be the three cities of the spirit, for the freedom of conversations, the activity of painters and musicians, and the beauty of women. Overwhelmed by refined hedonism, Stendhal moves with delight from one place to another, from the Lombard lakes to the banks of the Arno, and to Vesuvius, not hiding his disdain for the “dry souls” who do not understand the beauty of artistic creation and the pleasant life of a society accountable only to itself and aspiring to the highest destinies. And it is in his praise of Milan that the book reaches perfect originality, from a literary perspective. Later, Stendhal would complete this brilliant overview of Italy in the 19th century with his “Promenades in Rome.” Dictionnaire des Œuvres, V, 823.
Copy in exceptional condition, in a full Cathedral binding. It came from the workshop of Edme Vivet, a Parisian bookbinder and stationer.
Bindings bearing this signature are very rare. This formula, unique at the time, Re[lié] chez Edme Vivet, led Paul Culot, in Relieurs et reliures décorées en France à l’époque romantique, p. 570, to think that Vivet did not practice the profession of bookbinder himself.
From the library of B. Loliée.
