DUCLOS (Charles). Considérations sur l'Italie; par M. Duclos - Lot 18

DUCLOS (Charles). Considérations sur l'Italie; par M. Duclos, historiographe de France, l'un des quarante, et Secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie française, de celle des Belles-Lettres; de l'Académie de Berlin; de la Société Royale de Londres, et autres Académies. S.l. (Paris), 1767. In-4 maroq. rouge, 5-nerve spine decorated with a gilt bee, framed with 3 fillets on the boards with bee at the corners, serrations on the edges and in between, marbled boards. (Rel. anc.). PRECIOUS MANUSCRIT (150 PAGES) EXECUTED AT THE REQUEST OF DUCLOS, who had asked M. D'Alembert (his successor as Perpetual Secretary of the Académie) "to have him copy some manuscripts that relate to Italy". This copy, executed and returned to its author, was collected, after Duclos's death, by his executor, Mr. Louis-Paul Abeille, Inspecteur général du commerce de la France, born in Toulouse in 1719, who wrote: "This copy must be regarded as a second original, Duclos having revised it in its entirety". Indeed, it was he who erased five lines on page 106 and wrote the following words in line spaces: "Je fis comme à mon premier passage, honneur au Moscatello" ("I honored the Moscatello as I did in my first passage"). There are many other words deleted or added during the reading of this manuscript (pages 120, 121), where the author says he only wrote "Considération sur l'Italie" ("Considerations on Italy") for himself and his friends (p. 8), and he also says (p. 109) that he only wrote this Journal "for his particular satisfaction and not for printing". M. Abeille has prefaced the manuscript with a beautifully calligraphed title, a 16-page disclaimer listing Duclos's works, and a copy of eleven letters he received from Duclos during his trip to Italy. A "Mémoire" by M. Melon: "Plan général du Gouvernement économique de l'Etat ecclésiastique" and a "Table des principales matières" complete the work. It is well known that Charles Duclos (Dinan 1704-1772 Paris) was chosen by the King to occupy the post of Historiographer of France, a post that Voltaire had just left, and that Voltaire did not fail from that day on, and whenever he had the opportunity, to hurl some epigrammatic trait against Duclos, while Diderot, who described him as "upright and adroit", said of him: "It would be to be wished that Voltaire still had the gentleness of Duclos" (Le Neveu de Rameau). In a letter included in the de Berny sale, the Marquise de Pompadour wrote to her brother, the Marquis de Marigny, during his stay in Italy: "Le sieur de Voltaire étant devenu chambellan du Roy de Prusse n'a pu rester historiographe de Roy de France; en conséquence j'ai mandé la place pour Duclos, qui, comme vous savés, est le plus honnête homme du monde". Added to this manuscript at the time of binding: two very fine portraits by Cochin and Duflos (after La Tour) as well as two maps of Italy, folded, decorated with a vignette and illuminated, one with a route traced by Duclos. Also enclosed (unbound) are a l.a.s. from Duclos and one from the Marquis de Mirabeau (père) addressed to M. Abeille. SUPERB 18th-CENTURY BINDING, very fresh, with spine and boards decorated with bees (mark of the book's first owner, Duclos' executor).