Mémoires du colonel Voutier sur la guerre actuelle des Grecs - Exemplaire aux armes du roi Ernest Auguste Ier de Hanovre

First edition, published in Paris by Bossange frères in December 1823, illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and four engraved portraits drawn from life by Olivier Voutier himself and engraved on copper by Normand fils. Cf. Loukia Droulia, 429; Blackmer, 1751; not in Atabey.

Contemporary half black shagreen, sympathetically restored spine with four raised bands ruled in triple gilt fillets, aubergine paper-covered boards, gilt armorial stamp to the upper cover. Boards somewhat faded, modern bookplate pasted to the upper pastedown, occasional foxing.

Written by a direct witness to the opening years of the Greek War of Independence, Voutier's Memoirs rank among the principal contemporary French accounts of the conflict. A naval officer trained at Brest, Olivier Voutier (1796-1877) is remembered as one of the claimed discoverers of the Venus de Milo, unearthed during his visit to the island in 1820. The following year he resigned his commission in the Royal French Navy to join the Greek insurgents, answering the philhellenic call that drew volunteers from across Europe.

As Leonora Navari succinctly observes, "Voutier went to Greece in 1821 and acted as ADC to Mavrocordatos on the Peta campaign." He is believed to have served as aide-de-camp to Alexandros Mavrokordátos during the Epirus campaign of 1822, which culminated in the defeat at Peta against the Ottoman forces of Omer Vryonis. A few months later, however, Mavrokordátos played a decisive role in the successful defence of Missolonghi.

Voutier's Memoirs continue to be cited by historians of European philhellenism as one of the very few first-hand narratives of these events, although several contemporary philhellenes questioned the extent of the author's personal role almost immediately after their publication.

Distinguished provenance: armorial copy of Ernest Augustus of Hanover (1771-1851), fifth son of King George III, additionally bearing the red library stamp of his collection on the verso of the title page.

Combining one of the earliest French first-hand accounts of the Greek War of Independence with an outstanding royal provenance, this copy illustrates both the European philhellenic movement and the early circulation of a work that remains one of the principal contemporary narratives of the Greek insurrection.