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40 - [MANUSCRIT - ALGERIA - ARMY OF AFRICA] - BERROUYL (or Berrou…
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Estimate €400 - €500
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Description
[MANUSCRIT - ALGERIA - ARMY OF AFRICA] - BERROUYL (or Berrouil)(H.). Refusal of Burial: Letter from a soldier to a priest in Oran. Vibrant testimony on military anticlericalism and the condition of the soldier in Oran under the Second Empire. Accompanied by more than 50 pages of songs and poems. Oran, 13 January 1863. Volume in-8 (190 x 150mm). Bound in period style with oriental flap, full red morocco, framing lace and central iron of foliage and flowers pushed in gold. Dull spine. 7pp,.n.ch. 2pp.n.ch, 16ff ( blank), 1-36pp and 41-53pp. 7pp.n.ch. Leather faded, small tear at foot cap. Approximately 30 leaves have been cut out. Traces of handling. Manuscript in black ink on notebook, in very legible handwriting, signed by H. Berrouyl, non-commissioned officer in the 3rd Squadron of the Train des Équipages militaires garrisoned at Oran. This letter of admonition, written in a powerful and indignant style, is addressed to a priest in Oran who had refused to bury a soldier who had died in hospital before being able to confess. In it, Berrouyl delivers a veritable plea against the inhumanity of priestly zeal and the misuse of charity: "[...] as if, with you, it were a conscious decision to destroy all our illusions one by one, to brutally tear away all our beliefs, [...]. You take us by the hand, we laymen who, with our eyes wide open, were only asking to believe [...]. You show us in the half-light of the picture, as an obligatory accompaniment, the spirit that drives you, the spirit of anarchy, absolutism and selfish intolerance. A soldier falls ill, is taken to hospital without any knowledge, dies and you refuse to bury him because, you say, he didn't confess? At the end of the volume, in another hand, there is a rich compilation of versified texts and popular songs of the time: "Les Bœufs", "Le Chemin des amoureux", "Le Trappiste", "Les Hirondelles", "Le Surnuméraire", "La gourde à la patrouille", and so on.
See original version (French)
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About the sale Prestige sale - Antiquarian and collectible books
Auction location
Auction time 06/15/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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