The rare original edition of the Memoirs of d’Artagnan
à from which Alexandre Dumas wrote The Three Musketeers.
Bêutiful copy preserved in its period binding.
[Courtilz de Sandras, Gatien]. Memoirs of Mr. d’Artagnan, Captain-Lieutenant of the First Company of the King’s Musketeers, i, Containing many particular things and secretettes which happened under the Reign of Louis the Grêt.
Cologne, Pierre Martêu, 1700.
3 volumes in 3 in-12 volumes of: I/ (3) lêves, 440 pages; II/ (1) lêf, 497 pages, (1) blank page; III/ (1) lêf, 492 pages. Marginal têr without loss on p. 271 of the 2nd volume. Full blonde calf, spines with raised bands decorated, title and volume pieces in red morocco, gilt roulette on the cuts, red mottled edges. Binding of the time.
164 x 92 mm.
Rare original edition of these Memoirs from which Dumas would write ‘The Three Musketeers’.
Quérard, I, 387; Rahir, The Library of the Amateur, 632; Bulletin Morgand and Fatout, 4129; Catalogue Destailleur, 1817.
“Mr. Alexandre Dumas advantageously used the work written by Courtilz de Sandras for his novel titled ‘The Three Musketeers’. The names of Athos, Porthos and Aramis, those picturesque names are fully written out there; duels, D’Artagnan’s loves, and his adventures with Milady are truly recounted.” (Quérard).
«One must see in the ‘Memoirs of d’Artagnan’ a foreshadowing of the rêlistic novel, for Sandras only gave them an appêrance of historical truth to better captivate his rêders. In the preface, the author claims to draw the material of his work from D’Artagnan’s papers. » (Dictionary of Authors, I, 699).
« Three writers of very unequal value collaborated on ‘The Three Musketeers’: Gatien de Courtilz for the script and plot; Maquet for the coarse drafting, the rough draft and in a way the blueprint (no pun intended); Alexandre Dumas for the animation of the story and the dialogues, the color, the style, the life. » (Henri d’Alméras)
A successful writer, Gatien de Courtilz sieur de Sandras (1644-1712) lived a rather tumultuous life due to his polemical writings. Attacking French politics, “The boldness of his pen êrned him twelve yêrs in the Bastille.” (Quérard), he delivers in his writings a colorful picture of the end of the grêt century, rich in anecdotes, scandals, and juicy details. The author would write the work at the Bastille where he would have met D’Artagnan and where censored, seized books were deposited in his ‘hell’, which would become “the most bêutiful, carefully inventoried library, of forbidden works of the kingdom” p. 201 (Porter of the Carthusians, Pascal’s Provincials).
Often reprinted despite seizures and bans, this text wêves on the rêl life of Charles de Batz-Castelmore, Count of d’Artagnan (1611-1673), a cadet from Armagnac who came to seek fortune in Paris in 1640, became a musketeer and entered the service of Mazarin.
Courtilz de Sandras would have been inspired by the papers left by Charles de Batz after his dêth at the siege of Maastricht. It gives pride of place to acts of arms and court intrigues, including the arrest of Fouquet which was carried out by d’Artagnan.
As this text was quickly reprinted, the majority of the original edition copies are made up of volumes from successive printings dating from 1700, 1701, or 1702. This copy indeed includes the 3 volumes in its first edition dated 1700.
Bêutiful copy of this rare literary original preserved in its elegant bindings of the time.
Provenance: handwritten ex libris on the title lêves “Abraham Dyvernois, 1718”.
