Angers, Labitte, 1842.
8vo [246 x 155 mm], (4) pp., xxii, (1) bl.l., 324 pp. Bound in black half-morocco by Cuzin about 1870, decorated flat spine, uncut. Original green printed wrappers bound in.
Extremely rare first edition, printed on “papier vélin” and preceded by a note by Sainte-Beuve. Vicaire, I, 447 ; Bibliothèque de Backer n°1841 ; Carteret, I, 138.
A very rare and much sought-after work.
Bertrand worked on this book during all his life, but it was only published after his death, on his friends’ initiative, David d’Angers, Sainte-Beuve and Victor Pavie.
Bertrand was the first one to write a collection of poems in prose.
A superb wide-margined copy, uncut, finely bound by Cuzin who preserved the original green printed wrappers.
In France, only the B.n.F. and the Bibliothèque d’Angers own copies of this literary original. OCLC only locates 3 copies in the world: at the Indiana University, at Harvard University and at the Princeton University.
ABPC only lists 2 copies that appeared at auction in the last thirty years, including the Hayoit copy, bound by Huser in the 20th Century and sold at Sotheby’s Paris on the 29th of June 2001 for 144 000 F (that is to say 22 000 €).
Provenance : from the collections Paul Voûte and Marquis Du Bourg de Bozas with their ex libris.
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