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an old book with a black and white title on itan open book with a handwritten title on itan old book with a black and white title on itillustration of a black and white horse in a circle on a page of a booka book with a picture of a bird on it
ALDE

10 - ARTAUD (Antonin). Heliogabalus or The Crowned Anarchist.
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Estimate €1,500 - €2,000
Sale commission
Description
ARTAUD (Antonin). Heliogabalus or The Crowned Anarchist. Paris, Denoël & Steele, 1934. In-8, orange half-shagreen with corner pieces, gilt head, cover and spine (contemporary binding). First edition illustrated with six vignettes by André Derain. One of the five top copies on pure thread. “Whilst there is an intense flow of blood and excrement around the corpse of Heliogabalus—who died without a grave, his throat slit by his own police in the latrines of his palace—there is an intense flow of semen around his cradle.” The story of Heliogabalus, as recounted in Madeleine Turrell Rodack’s thesis, must be briefly summarised here, as it forms the link to the following book, concerning Artaud’s journey to Mexico: “This concerns third-century Syria and the young Varius Antonius, known as Heliogabalus, who, having grown up in colonial Syria, became Roman emperor and established in Rome the cult of the sun of which he had been the priest at Emesa. Artaud immersed himself in a study of this cult of the sun and that of the moon, finding therein the eternal opposition between the masculine and feminine principles that form the basis of the universe. The priests of Emesa, like the Incas, claimed to be descendants of the sun. The description of the Temple of the Sun, where bloody and mysterious rites took place, and where a sort of transmutation of intense feelings and emotions occurred—which became the manifestation of the gods’ powers—brings to mind the black pyramids with their underground chambers and the ‘idols’ , the joyful sacrifices—even those offered willingly—to the deity, which we find among the Aztecs. But Artaud wishes to show that this Syrian religion, originally purifying, had begun to deteriorate and lose its substance. Was this also the case with the Aztecs? It is, however, certain that Artaud, who had already encountered this ancient Mexican civilisation in his research, could well have drawn parallels between these two worlds in his mind. Indeed, for both, the sun was the principal deity – the sun, a manifestation of unity, of the One towards which the universe aspires and into which it will eventually be reincorporated. Whilst conducting research for *Heliogabalus*, Artaud found the material he needed to develop his vision of Mexico’s fundamental culture.” Binding worn, cover slightly sun-faded. Turell Rodack, *Antonin Artaud and the Vision of Mexico*, 1974.
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About the sale Eros & Thanatos – Selected extracts from the L-D S library
Auction location
Auction time 10/07/2026 at 2:00 PM
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ALDE
See original version (French)
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