L'Analyze des Echecs

Exceedingly rare first edition. A sole copy in the U.S. (Newberry), out of only five listed on OCLC with the correct first edition pagination (British Library, BnF, Allard Pierson, Lucerne).

True first edition of Philidor’s chess book housed in a contemporary armorial binding of a noble chess player: Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine of the Rhine.

Later forming part of the library of famous chess player Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster and arbiter of the 20th century, who assembled the largest and most prestigious private chess book collection in the world (according to Allan Savage, Caissa’s Legacy: The Great Chess Libraries).

Full brown sheepskin binding, boards with the arms of Charles Theodore, Count Palatine of Sulzbach, Prince-elector and Count Palatine of the Rhine and his wife Elisabeth Auguste of Palatinate-Sulzbach (Guiguard, I, p. 122), spine framed in gilt and elaborately gilt tooled with multiple crowned ciphers of Charles Theodore, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, minor restoration to corners and board edges.

Illustrated with a title vignette, one vignette within the text (following the list of subscribers), and a tailpiece. Van der Linde I, 391.

“Philidor was only 23 years old when the Analyze was written. It is a notable work, revealing a singular maturity of judgement in one so young, and it had an instant success, and one far more lasting than that of any other chess book of the kind. Two reissues were necessary in the year of its publication, and many other reprints and editions followed [...]  Since his death the Analyze has been reprinted often: it formed the basis of the first Russian work on chess, and is probably still the best-known work on the subject in France, Spain, and the Spanish-speaking countries of America.”

 (H. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess)

This mythical first edition — some even doubted its existence — features a fruit basket as a title vignette. Despite sharing the same publication date on their title pages, its two known pirate editions bear different vignette designs. A further distinguishing feature of this true first edition is the word “Tems” with a capital ‘T’ in the title, and its pagination of 170 pages (162 in the pirate edition). The list of 127 subscribers only appears in this edition, which includes the name of chess and snack enthusiast Lord Sandwich who had taken a great liking to the young prodigy. He subscribed for 10 copies and the Duke of Cumberland, to whom the work is dedicated, subscribed for a whopping 50 copies.

The “game of kings,” was at that time regarded as an esteemed and demanding intellectual pursuit. The first edition of this work by “the great philosopher of chess” naturally found its place in the library of the enlightened prince Charles Theodore bearing his arms and cipher. The owner even had himself portrayed with a chessboard in a celebrated painting in which he points to an overturned bishop (Bayerisches Nationalmuseum).

Philidor and Charles Theodore’s paths doubtless crossed at court in Mannheim — Philidor travelled throughout Europe and defeated the greatest chess players of his day in blindfold play — but most probably also in the context of Philidor’s brilliant career as a composer. In his own day Philidor was equally famous as chess-player and as musician. He trained under Campra and at a very young age wrote motets for both the Chapelle de Versailles and the Concert Spirituel. Philidor then triumphed in the genre of opéra-comique. Charles Theodore was himself a musician and the driving force behind the rise of the Mannheim school. It was precisely during his reign that the German Western repertoire incorporated French opéras-comiques, including pieces by Philidor himself.

Interesting contemporary annotations challenging one of Philidor’s plays on rear free endpaper.

Provenance: engraved bookplate of Lothar Schmid on front pastedown ; stamp of chess bookseller Julien Guisle on rear free endpaper.