Copy of Josephine and Napoleon - Lot 128

Copy of Josephine and Napoleon DUSAULX (Jean Joseph) Voyage à Barège et dans les Hautes Pyrénées fait en 1788. Paris, Didot jeune, 1796. 2 volumes in-8: 347pp / 2f, 211pp (the 2 table leaves paginated in fine), 52pp (Juvenal's translation), 53-56 (2 table leaves with this pagination). Contemporary speckled glazed fawn calf, decorated smooth spines, red title-pieces and tomoon medallions, gilt initials "P. B." at the foot, gilt roulette around the boards, gilt roulette around the edges, slight wear, yellow edges. A fine copy. It should be noted that there are copies with the table numbered 53-56, i.e. intended to be inserted after the "Translation of Juvenal", and others, rarer, with the table numbered 209-212, this table being, in both cases, entirely devoted to the "Voyage". This copy contains these two different tables. Dusaulx knew many personalities such as J. J. Rousseau, whose influence he underwent; his "Voyage à Barèges" is written in the style of the "Nouvelle Héloïse" (Labarère 525). Provenance: A precious, fine copy that once belonged to Napoleon and Josephine (from the Malmaison library, bearing the gilded initials "P. B." [Pagerie-Bonaparte] at the foot of the spine and the Malmaison library stamp on the title). Copies of Pyrenean works with prestigious provenance are more than rare; what could be better than a copy that belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress Josephine! The auction price matched the dream (7,455.90 euros). Like many of the Malmaison works, this "Voyage à Barèges" could have been bound either by one of the Bradels, or by Charles-Pierre Bizouard (rue des Carmes, Paris). The wet stamp "Bibliothèque de la Malmaison" was affixed to the title pages for the sales from May to July 1829. These sales were the subject of a brief catalog: "Notice des livres composant la bibliothèque de La Malmaison, provenant de la succession de S. A. R. le prince Eugène et qui avait appartenu à Napoléon et à l'impératrice Joséphine (vente au château de La Malmaison les dimanche 28 et lundi 29 juin-juillet 1829". The copy then entered the library of Dr. Maurice Bernard-Catinat, historian of Napoleon and Josephine and member of the Board of Directors of the Fondation Napoléon (cherry morocco bookplate). Finally, it passed into the Library of Dominique de Villepin, who placed his bookplate on the first spine of each book ("V" framed by the sun and moon, created by the painter Zao Wou-Ki.