Chrétien-Guillaume de Lamoignon de MALESHERBES (1721–1794), - Lot 494

Lot n° 494
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1200 - 1500 EUR
Chrétien-Guillaume de Lamoignon de MALESHERBES (1721–1794), - Lot 494
Chrétien-Guillaume de Lamoignon de MALESHERBES (1721–1794), magistrate and minister. Autograph manuscripts of poetry; 60 pages in quarto and small quarto, in one volume bound in modern marbled-paper cardboard. Poetic essays by Malesherbes on ancient history. The first section, consisting of 7 folios (13 pages), is a copy of “Technical Verses on the History of the Roman Emperors, the first by Father Buffier, and continued by others,” beginning with Tiberius: “Tiberius was the first tyrant in disguise”… [The Jesuit and educator Claude Buffier (1661–1737) developed and published *A Practical Guide to Artificial Memory for Easily Learning and Retaining Chronology and Universal History* (1705–1706), notably through the use of alexandrines. His “Verses on World History from Jesus Christ to the Present” begin with the history of the Roman emperors; this section of his work concerning the Roman emperors—a fairly succinct account—was expanded and supplemented by other authors.] A second part consists of 14 folios (27 pages). In it, Malesherbes himself writes—sometimes with numerous crossings-out and corrections—a sequel to Buffier’s verses, beginning with the massacre of Julius Constantius, Emperor Constantine’s half-brother, and his family in 337: “But no sooner had he died than his guilty sons/ Caused the deaths of his relatives and all his favorites. […] The soldier slaughtered them, and nothing was spared/ Except two frail children, Gallus and Julian”… The last pages are in draft form, covered with corrections. A final set of 10 folios (20 pages), of a smaller format, is titled: “Technical Verses on the History of the Roman Empire,” beginning with Tiberius, “the disguised tyrant,” and bears this note at the beginning: “The verses on this first page are those of Father Buffier that I had set aside. I have forgotten the others. This is what prompted me to continue them up to Constantine, following Father Buffier’s prosody. And since then, I’ve had the whim to continue them […] up to the destruction of the Western Empire and, in the East, up to the Hegira.” This continuation ends as follows: “Finally, Byzantium falls to the Sultans / In the year fifty-three after fourteen hundred”; the collection closes with a draft page.
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