Narcisse dans l'île de Vénus. Poème en quatre chants.

Paris: 1795. Octavo (18.5 x 11 cm). Printed on vellum. Elegantly bound in red morocco by Charles Capé (1806-1867), binder to the Louvre, the Empress Eugénie, and the duc d’Aumale. Spine gilt in compartments, triple-line rules to boards and elaborate turn-ins gilt, green morocco doublures, marbled free endpapers, all edges gilt. Minor horizontal fold to each leaf, staining to page 121. 19 x 12.5cms. One of only two known copies printed on vellum of this rare satirical poem, this copy potentially linked to an important pre-1812 Moscow library. Of the known copies of Narcisse dans l’île de Vénus, one resides at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The second is the present copy, which was owned by the celebrated French bookseller and collector Charles Chardin, and was sold when part of his library was auctioned by Leigh and Sotheby in London in 1819 and sold again in the sale of the Hochart library. IIA copy that may be described as being printed on vellum (“p. vél”) is recorded in the 1805 library catalogue of Count Boutourlin , one of the greatest of Russian collectors and head of the Imperial Russian Library. Boutourlin’s magnificent personal library was destroyed during the devastating Moscow fire of 1812, and it was believed that the Malfilâtre was lost in the conflagration.The timing of this volume’s appearance in 1819 is, however, suggestive. This copy has mild grey stains at the tops of the leaves, always corresponding to points where the vellum has naturally curled, leaving a space open between the pages. It is plausible that these could have been caused by soot falling onto the top edge and only penetrating the book where the leaves were separated. Many of the leaves show evidence of having been folded in half, and other pages show signs of water damage and possible cleaning, prior to its being bound by Capé. The original binding on the Boutourlin copy is uncertain but thought to have been red morocco. It was rebound by the French master binder Charles Capé in the 1830s or 40s, leaving no trace of a previous binding.) A likely conclusion might be that the book was either looted from the fire or discovered in the ruins of the library, and subsequently sold in Paris. As Chardin was one of the most prominent French booksellers of the period it makes sense that the volume would have found its way into his hands. Much of Moscow’s artistic and literary heritage was destroyed during the disaster, and books with provenance tying them to pre-1812 institutions are of the utmost rarity. It is, of course, not possible to state definitively that this is the same copy. But given the rarity of vellum printings of Narcisse, this appealing association should not be completely discounted. Literature: Catalogue des Livres de la Bibliotheque de S.E.M. le comte de Botourlin. Paris, Pougins 1805 Number 1855Nouveau dictionnaire portatif de bibliographie. Paris, Fournier fre?res 1809 page 330 "Il en a été tiré deux exemplaires sor peu de vélin grande forme" van Praet; Catalogue des livres imprimés sur vélin de la Bibliothéque du roi Paris, De Bure frères 1822 Volume IV page 213 number 304 "Il n'en a été tiré que deux sur vélin". Text in French.