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33 - [MANUSCRIT]. [RACINE (Louis)] Inventory after the death of M…
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Estimate €1,500 - €1,800
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[MANUSCRIT]. [RACINE (Louis)] Inventory after the death of M. Louis Racine In French, manuscript on paper. France, Paris, 11 February 1763. In-folio, 168 ff, end missing, cursive handwriting in brown ink, notary's handwriting, paper stamped "Généralité de Paris". Unbound manuscript. A few stains, small hole in first leaf. Dimensions: 332 x 220 mm Louis Racine (1692-1763) was the son of the playwright Jean Racine, his second son and seventh and last child. Louis Racine lost his father at the age of six; in 1728 he married Marie Presle de L'Écluse, the daughter of a councillor at the Lyon Mint. He lost his eldest son in 1755 in Cadiz, a victim of the flood caused by the Lisbon earthquake. This was a terrible blow for him, and he stopped writing, limiting himself to translating Milton's Paradise Lost, and immersed himself in devotion. The author of poems such as La Grâce (1720), a Jansenist-inspired text, and La Religion (1742), Louis Racine was admitted to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1719. He lived his whole life in the memory of his "grandfather". He published Mémoires sur la vie de Jean Racine (1747). Louis Racine had a scholarly brother, Jean-Baptiste Racine (1678-1747): Jean-Baptiste Racine's extensive library passed into the hands of his younger brother Louis: "It was obviously extremely valuable because it included the great poet's manuscripts, documents concerning him, books that had belonged to him and that he had often annotated in the most learned way" (Jovy, 1932, p. 558). Following the death of his son in 1755, Louis Racine organised a sale of his library, which included works that had belonged to one or more of the three Racines (Jean, Jean-Baptiste and Louis). Some of these books were bought by Le Franc de Pompignan (1709-1784), a friend of Louis Racine, who donated them to the city of Toulouse: "Le Franc de Pompignan collected some of his friend's books, and later disposed of them in favour of the Toulouse library, which was almost his home" (La Roque, Poésies de Louis Racine, Paris, 1892, p. 53). This after-death inventory is interesting because, in addition to the furniture, paintings and other possessions of the deceased at his home on rue Sainte-Anne in Paris, it contains lists of books that belonged to him, those that were not sold in 1755: "The following are the books making up the library of the aforementioned Mr Racine, valued and estimated...in the opinion of Mr François Gabriel Marigot père, bookseller in Paris, residing in the quaye des Augustins, parish of Saint André des Arcs, expert and appointed by all the parties...". This is followed by prints, archives and various deeds or contracts. Among the books, we can cite for example: "Eleven volumes including the works of Racine Père...". See : Abbé Adrien de La Roque, Vie de Louis Racine, suivie d'une notice sur les autres enfants de Jean Racine, par l'un de ses arrière-petits-fils, Paris, Firmin Didot frères, 1852. - Jovy, Ernest. "La bibliothèque des Racine, Jean, Jean-Baptiste et Louis Racine", in Bulletin du bibliophile et du bibliothécaire, 1932, nouvelle série (onzième année), pp. 556-564. - [Sale]. [Racine, Louis (Collection)]. Catalogue des livres de feu Monsieur R*** dont la vente sera indiquée par affiches, Paris, G. Martin, 7 August 1755.
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About the sale ENLUMINATIONS, ANCIENT and MODERN BOOKS
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Auction time 06/17/2026 at 2:00 PM
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