Des Places fortes

First edition.

Bradel binding in full blue paper-covered boards, smooth spine, red morocco title label.

Only two copies recorded in the CCF (BnF and Bibliothèque Thiers).

This rare text constitutes an extract from a larger work which appears not to have been published, the opening title bearing Chapter 15, Des Places fortes, and an advertisement on p. 139 indicating Chapter 16, De la Stratégie.

The work concludes with an interesting list of French fortified places, with an indication of the garrisons required for their defence.

Son of the celebrated René-Louis de Girardin d'Ermenonville, Lieutenant-General Count Alexandre-Louis-Robert de Girardin (1776-1855) distinguished himself during the Napoleonic Wars, particularly in the French campaign where he defeated the Russians at Champaubert.

Appointed Master of the Hunt to Louis XVIII and Charles X, he was sidelined under Louis-Philippe and devoted himself to questions of military policy. In this treatise on fortified places he demonstrates the futility of fortifying capitals such as Paris, as the government was beginning to envisage. Events proved him right in 1870.

Autograph inscription from Alexandre de Girardin d'Ermenonville to the Duke of Fezensac.

He is Raymond Aimery de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1784-1867), likewise a general of the Empire and Peer of France (he notably delivered in 1841 a remarkable speech on the fortifications of Paris projected by Thiers).