Mémoires de M. le Duc de Lauzun

First edition of these important memoirs covering the years 1747 to 1783 (cf. Sabin 39271).

Contemporary full mottled calf, smooth spine gilt with fillets, roulettes and floral tools, some rubbing with small losses of leather at the foot of the upper board, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges, marbled edges; period binding.

Upper cap and corners restored.

The duc de Lauzun (1747–1793) accompanied the comte de Rochambeau during the French expedition to America; he recounts this campaign in his Mémoires, pp. 339–375.

The editorial history of this publication deserves notice: the original manuscript having not been recovered, the text—issued some twelve times to the present day—was established from copies circulating under the Empire; its authenticity was nevertheless confirmed by Talleyrand.

In the first edition, published in 1822 (the present copy), several passages suggesting a liaison between Marie-Antoinette and Lauzun were removed or altered.

These passages reappeared in 1833, in a parallel printing juxtaposing the expurgated passages with a manuscript version presented as original. It was not until 1858 that the first unexpurgated edition was issued, with a biographical notice by Louis Lacour.