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291 - Charles-Augustin SAINTE-BEUVE (1804-1869) - PORT-ROYAL Autog…
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Estimate €6,000 - €8,000
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Charles-Augustin SAINTE-BEUVE (1804-1869) - PORT-ROYAL Autograph manuscript of Book IV entitled '' ÉCOLES DE PORT-ROYAL'', appearing in the THIRD VOLUME of the E.O., published in Paris by the LIBRAIRIE de L. HACHETTE, in 1848. Important and precious manuscript consisting of 139 numbered leaves, glued on wide vertical strips inserted, presumably by the bookbinder, in a gd in-4° midnight blue, coarse-grained morocco, smooth spine, gilt lettering, and ''Manuscrit autogr.'' at the tail of the spine. Signed binding by R. Brisson, dating from the 1920s. The 139 leaves of the SEVEN CHAPTERS of the fourth book '' Ecoles de Port-Royal ''. An unnumbered title page, ''Livre quatrième - Écoles de Port-Royal'', precedes the chapters. The texts of the seven chapters are all preceded by their presentation. Chapter I comprises 23 leaves, numbered from 1 to 23. Chapter II comprises 19 leaves, numbered from 24 to 42. Chapter III comprises 15 leaves, numbered 43 to 57. Chapter IV comprises 14 leaves, numbered 58 to 71. Chapter V comprises 20 leaves, numbered 72 to 91. Chapter VI comprises 21 leaves, numbered 92 to 112. Chapter VII comprises 27 leaves, numbered 113 to 139. Most of the handwriting is heavily inked on the front only, and the text contains numerous erasures and corrections. The leaves are also filled with numerous spandrels, ranging from small side strips to page-long additions attached to the bottom of the leaves. Some chapters also include notes and short typographed texts cut from the works, inserted between the leaves. In addition, many leaves contain indications for the printer in the left margin, mainly concerning character reductions and indentations. Between 1840 and 1859 Sainte-Beuve published the Original Edition of his work in Paris in FIVE TOMES, the first two volumes with EUGÈNE RENDUEL, in 1840 and 1842, the following volumes with LIBRAIRIE de L. HACHETTE, the publisher of the first two having ceased trading. It was an enlarged transposition of a lecture he had given at the Académie de Lausanne, where he had been introduced by Juste OLIVIER, a young professor of French history and literature posted to Neufchâtel, whom he had met in Paris in 1830, where he had come for a teaching training course, and with whom he had become friends. Influenced by Lamennais, Sainte-Beuve became interested in Port-Royal des Champs in the early 1930s, which led him to gather information with a view to writing a course on the history of the abbey. From the lessons given at the Lausanne Academy to the publication of his work. Between October 1837 and June 1838, Sainte-Beuve gave eighty-one lessons on Port-Royal at the Académie de Lausanne, which had accepted his project, at the rate of three lessons a week. These lessons, or rather lectures, were very well attended by an audience made up of intellectuals and members of good society in the canton of Vaud. From E.O. to GALLIMARD and Robert LAFFONT. Two letters addressed by the critic J.P. Rossignol to Sainte-Beuve, dated 26 May and 16 June 1848, inserted between leaflets and beginning "My dear critic ...", show that Sainte-Beuve was considered, at the time of the publication of his Port-Royal, above all as a critic. One hundred years after Sainte-Beuve's E.O. de Sainte-Beuve, Éditions GALLIMARD published from 1953 to 1955, in the prestigious Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, a remarkable Port-Royal in three volumes, totalling more than 3,000 pages, with a presentation and notes by Maxime LEROY; and Éditions Robert LAFFONT published in 2006, in the "Bouquins" collection,j a Port-Royal in 2 volumes, totalling 2,400 pages, presented and masterfully edited by the eminent Professor Philippe SELLIER of the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. These important and remarkable editions have shown that Sainte-Beuve's work was much more than a critical work, but a fully-fledged literary work of the first importance. Sainte-Beuve's Port-Royal is now considered a monumental fresco, tracing the history of the famous abbey from its foundation in the early thirteenth century to its complete destruction at the behest of the royal authorities. Today, museums, libraries and associations keep alive the memory of these places steeped in history. Provenance: In a French family since the 1920s. Note - The Hachette collection, a listed historic monument, has been preserved since 1995 by the Institut Mémoires de l'édition contemporaine (IMEC). From what we have learned, this collection contains documents by Sainte-Beuve, but no manuscripts of the Original Edition of Port-Royal. Expert: Mario Mordente
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Auction time 06/05/2026 at 2:00 PM
Lot description modified on 05/19/2026 at 11:07 AM
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