STENDHAL. Life of Rossini. Paris : Auguste Boulland et Cie, 1824. - 2 volumes in-8, 194 x 117 : portrait, viij, 306 pp. ; portrait, (2 ff.), pp. (305)-623. Dark green half-maroquin with corners, gilt filets, spine decorated, gilt edges (Bellevallée). First edition illustrated in frontispiece with portraits of Rossini and Mozart engraved by Ambroise Tardieu after Léopold Beyer. This remarkable book, published during Rossini's lifetime, is not so much an attempt to make the composer known as to restore the memory of sensations experienced by the author. A true testimony of an era, it is punctuated with anecdotes and small biographies of singers and singresses. Very nice copy, washed, bound by Bellevallée.