French revolutionary (1749-1791). Letter signed. N. p. 19.06.1790. Small 4to. 2 pp. on bifolium.
$ 4,906 / 4.500 €
(33880/BN29530)
To "mon cher Brosselard", i. e. the French politician, journalist, and author Emmanuel Brosselard (1763-1837), on research, work, and analysis of the "Code prussien": "[...] Je vous envoie un fragment de Manuscrit qui vous en dira je crois beaucoup, c'est la partie raisonnée du Projet du Code Prussien relative aux biens appartenant en propre aux enfans á la cessation du pouvoir paternel, et enfin aux droits d'hérédité des enfans ou autres descendans à l'ordre succession [...] malheureusement je ne puis pas vous laisser longtemps ces cahiers, il faut que vous ne fassiez que les lire, et que vous me marquiez au crayon ce qui seroit nécessaire de vous en copier [...] je travaille et fais travailler sur ce manuscrit, il m'est difficile de vous le laisser plus longtemps que demain.
Je ne renonce point à vous aider pour la partie morale de ce travail [...]". - Somewhat wrinkled, spotty and dusty..
French revolutionary (1749-1791). Letter signed ("Le Comte de Mirabeau"). N. p. 16.06.1790. 8vo. 3 pp.
$ 7,087 / 6.500 €
(48922/BN33033)
To an undisclosed recipient, wishing to discuss the particulars of a new public education system in France: "J'ai reçu, Monsieur, un temoignage de votre bienveillance, etre n'est pas le premier dont vous m'avez honoré [...]". - Transl. from the French original: "I received, Monsieur, a token of your kindness, and it was not the first with which you have honored me. I have delayed in answering you because I was in bed, deprived of sight, and I didn't want that the hand of a secretary temper the expression of my gratitude.
It is sincere [...] when good citizens such as you and, which is a very honorable coincidence, good citizens illuminated by the meditation and study of works which have produced everything which is great in the world, take up the task of consoling public men for the calumnies, iniquities, ostracisms which are their surest emolument. If nature hadn't endowed me with some tenacity, and my bizarre destiny, in sowing my way with shackles, hadn't provided me with some compensations of this kind, my very ardent sensibility would long since have consumed me. I would be very charmed [...] to make your closer acquaintance and to talk over your ideas on a new system of public education, for the moment is approaching for dealing with it, and we have been building on moving sands if we don't give our entire edi!ce such underpinnings. Please let me know the moments that your circumstances would permit you to give me in particular, and agree to the homages of the very distinguished sentiments with which I have the honor to be [...] your very humble and very obedient servant" [...]. - In a lengthy postscript, Mirabeau has added: "I am sending this letter to your bookseller, as I don't know your address. Would you like to let me know what it is? Would it also be indiscreet to ask a literary favor of you? Books have been bought for me at this moment at M. d'Holbach's. I am not a bibliographer, much less a bibliomaniac; but am the owner of a rather large number of beautiful books. I have for many of the great men of antiquity a kind of superstition that makes me want to have their most beautiful editions. Of Demosthenes I only have the Works of Demosthenes and Aeschines, the first Greek orators &c. by Hieronymus Wolf, Frankfurt 1604 - Could you indicate the preferable edition? And the best editions of the Greek classics in general? I have been told of a Demosthenes edition in which there is a kind of medallion where this god of eloquence holds in one hand three crowns and in the other a raised dagger. Do you know this edition? [...]". - Some damage to edges and slightly dusty..
French revolutionary (1749-1791). "Le lecteur y mettra le titre". Autograph manuscript (fragment). [Amsterdam. Small 4to. 4 pp. on bifolium.
$ 7,087 / 6.500 €
(86123/BN57034)
This beautiful manuscript corresponds with pages 17 (3rd paragraph) to 24 (1st line) of the 1777 publication of Mirabeau's defence of instrumental music, "Le lecteur y mettra le titre". Published anonymously and giving London as a fictitious place of printing, Mirabeau was previously identified as the author of the text based on two letters. The manuscript in Mirabeau's hand confirms his authorship beyond any doubt. - The text was written in Amsterdam, just before Mirabeau's arrest and four-year imprisonment in Vincennes, under the impression of a performance of Ignazio Raimondi's symphony "Les aventures de Télémaque dans l'isle de Calypso".
The manuscript contains several revisions and changes that were adopted for the publication, while small discrepancies remain unaccounted for. It comprises Mirabeau's central questions, a general definition of music as "the art of combining sounds in a manner that is pleasing to the ear", and parts of his historical argument. - Mirabeau, who had no musical education, adopts the rhetorics of the paragone, opposing vocal music and instrumental music in order to determine which is superior in expressing emotions. While the development of the argument and Mirabeau's historical references are quite traditional, the defence of instrumental music and his assertion that it is more expressive in terms of conveying emotions, even if vocal music can offer a narrative based on texts, is unique in its time and appears to anticipate the Romantic predilection for programme music. The Neapolitan violonist and composer Ignazio Raimondi (ca. 1735-1813) was a student of Emanuele Barbella and member of the orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo before moving to Amsterdam in 1762, where he was a successful soloist and impresario. From 1785, Raimondi was mostly active in London, where he died in 1813. - Some browning and some damage due to ink corrosion, several tears partly affecting the text (one professionally restored)..