Lot n° 116
Estimation :
6000 - 7000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 7 808EUR
Léon BLOY (1846-1917). Two autograph manuscripts,... - Lot 116 - Ader
Léon BLOY (1846-1917). Two autograph manuscripts, Le Révélateur du Globe, Christophe Colomb et sa beatification future, [1879-1884]; 32 small in-4 pages mounted on tabs and bound in red percale; one small in-4 notebook of 23 pages, plus 13 pages mounted on tabs, black cloth spine, folder and case.
Precious manuscripts of the first published book of Léon Bloy, on Christopher Columbus.
It was in 1879 that Léon Bloy, inflamed by reading the works of Count Roselly de Lorgues, began to be passionate about Christopher Columbus and the cause of his beatification. He wrote a study for the Revue du Monde catholique, which was published on March 15 and 30 ("De la Béatification de Christophe Colomb") and July 15 ("Obstacles to the Introduction of the Cause") 1879, refusing to publish the more polemical part of this text. Léon Bloy took up, developed and amplified his work which appeared in January 1884 under the title Le Révélateur du Globe, Christophe Colomb et sa béatification future (The Revelator of the Globe, Christopher Columbus and his future beatification) by A. Sauton, with a preface by Barbey d'Aurevilly, who predicted: "It is a spirit of fire, composed of faith and enthusiasm, that this unknown Léon Bloy, who can no longer be so after the book he has just published"...
Included here:
A. On the Beatification of Christopher Columbus. Autograph manuscript, signed twice "Léon Bloy", of the text published in March 1879 in the Revue du Monde catholique. This is the manuscript that was used for the printing, carefully calligraphed by Léon Bloy, but with erasures and corrections. It is written on the front of 32 leaves, paginated by Bloy in red pencil [1-1 bis], 2-18, [18 bis], 19-30; at the end of each of the two parts, a beautiful signature of Bloy who asks to send him the proofs 22 rue Rousselet.
Former William Froehlich collection (1963, no. 21; bookplate). Exposition Léon Bloy, Bibliothèque nationale 1968, n° 62.
B. Le Révélateur du Globe. Autograph manuscript of first draft and work.
The first draft of Léon Bloy's primitive study, entitled here " Christophe Colomb par M. le Comte Roselly de Lorgues " (this is the text that appeared in March 1879 in the Revue du Monde catholique), has been mounted at the top, on tabs, on 7 leaves (paginated by Bloy [1] to 13) covered with a fine handwriting and abundantly erased and corrected.
The notebook (bearing the label of J. Courville, Papeterie et Fantaisie, 132 Rue du Bac) includes 12 leaves paginated by Bloy in blue pencil 1 to 23, plus the reverse side of the first plate, covered with a very fine writing in violet and then black ink, and presents innumerable erasures, corrections, marginal additions, and deletions. One can catch Bloy at work, taking up and developing his study to make a book, ordered in three parts: Exposé et Historique de la Cause; Le Serviteur de Dieu; Obstacles to the introduction of the cause.
C. Jules BARBEY D'AUREVILLY. Autograph manuscript of first draft for his Preface (2 pages in-fol., red and black inks and pencil, numerous erasures, corrections and additions) of which he gives the first half, ending on the hope that "this atom of preface [...] will be the first spark which will light on an ignored talent made perhaps, in a near time, to embrace all!"
Attached:
D. Advance notice to the Spadassins of Silence. Autograph manuscript (1 page and a half small in-4 on the back of the wedding announcement of Bloy with Johanne Molbech, May 27, 1890) of the introductory text for Christophe Colomb devant les taureaux (A. Savine, 1890).
"This new book, which would be my last literary breath, if the wish of a large enough number of my contemporaries were fulfilled, announced itself, from the moment of its incubation, as having to provide its author with the enviable comfort of the most perfect failure. It will be considered as "an annoying reiteration" of the Revelator of the Globe fallen into oblivion, "the first publication of an unknown man devoid of opulence, orphan of any protector from Below [...] one spoke there about God and the Catholic Church without any of the cockroach and Judaic precautions indispensable, it seems, to the intromission of the Truth in the balanced brains that Pilate synthesizes. [...] I had the obviously unheard-of audacity not to adore the simulacra and to conspute the phallophores and the mass murderers of innocents without any formality. A conspiracy of silence was organized against him. Why should it cease? This work, which "does not contain a pinch of excrement or rot", cannot interest journalists. "It is necessary that I disgorge all the contempt that I have on the heart! [Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, I will again take care of some French people that I have not forgotten and as the saying goes, every dog has its day.
Former collections Daniel Sickles (XI, n° 4190); then Philippe Zoummeroff (March 15, 1995, n° 282).
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