Claude-Joseph ROUGET DE LISLE

One of the very few copies bearing an autograph inscription—fewer than ten are recorded—of this first edition, containing the Marseillaise.
First edition illustrated with an engraved frontispiece by Charles-Étienne Gaucher after Jean-Jacques Le Barbier and four pages of engraved musical score at the end of the volume. La Marseillaise appears here in its true first edition, having first been pre-published in the Almanach des Muses in 1793 and circulated as separate leaves.
Contemporary half-sheepskin binding, smooth spine gilt-decorated with compartments, fleurons and fillets, red morocco title-piece, black pasteboard...

1825 edition, here lacking its title page, in which the celebrated lyricist claimed for the first time, explicitly and in writing, to be the sole composer of La Marseillaise, that is, the author of both the music and the words. He would make this claim on only one other occasion, in a letter of 5 January 1829 to M. Beuchot. In its early years, France's national anthem was the subject of a genuine controversy over its authorship, particularly regarding the musical composition, that would persist long after 1825, notwithstanding the declarations contained in this edition. Hector...