{"product_id":"malcolm-john-sir-histoire-de-la-perse-depuis-les-tems-les-plus-anciens-jusqu-a-l-epoque-actuelle-suivie-d-observations-sur-la-religion-le-gouvernement-les-usages-et-les-moeurs-des-habitans-de-cette-contree-traduit-de-l-anglais","title":"MALCOLM, John, Sir. Histoire de la Perse, depuis les tems les plus anciens jusqu’a l’époque actuelle; suivie d’observations sur la religion, le gouvernement, les usages et les mœurs des habitans de cette contrée. Traduit de l’anglais ...","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"font-variant: small-caps\"\u003eFrom the Library of Napoleon’s Second Wife\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMALCOLM, John, Sir.\u003c\/strong\u003e Histoire de la Perse, depuis les tems les plus anciens jusqu’a l’époque actuelle; suivie d’observations sur la religion, le gouvernement, les usages et les mœurs des habitans de cette contrée. Traduit de l’anglais ... \u003ci\u003eParis: Pillet aîné\u003c\/i\u003e. 1821.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFour volumes, 8vo. Contemporary quarter red long-grained morocco over red paper-covered boards, central gilt cipher ‘ML’ surmounted by royal crown (variant of Olivier, pl. 2654, \u003ci\u003efer\u003c\/i\u003e 9) to boards, flat spine lettered directly in gilt, edges uncut; folding engraved map of Persia and 8 engraved plates by Ambroise Tardieu (1788–1841), including portrait of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, all with tissue guards; woodcut publisher’s device to titles; corners bumped, a few tiny wormholes to spines, vol. I with small worm damage to lower joint, vol. II with foot of spine chipped,  vol. IV with minor worm damage at foot of spine and small losses of morocco at upper and lower joints (colour-retouched); occasional glue staining to pastedowns; light, variable browning and offsetting, occasional foxing, but overall a very good copy; bookplate of Raymond Poincaré by Raymond Prevost (1891–1972), dated 1929 (see below), and a cutting from an early twentieth-century catalogue, describing this copy, to pastedown of vol. I.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst edition in French of the nineteenth-century ‘standard western work’ about Persia, this set from the Parma library of former Empress Marie Louise (1791–1847), Napoleon’s second wife, and later owned by Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934), President of France from 1913 and 1920.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSir John Malcolm (1769–1833) was a Scottish soldier, diplomat, colonial administrator in India and author of several historical works on the subcontinent. From India, he undertook three diplomatic missions to Qajar Persia, during which he established close relations with the court of Fath-Ali Shah (1772–1834). Malcolm also claimed to have introduced potato cultivation to Persia, where the tuber was reportedly known as\u003ci\u003e ālu-ye Malkam\u003c\/i\u003e, or ‘Malcolm’s plum’, although the claim remains disputed. His \u003ci\u003eHistory of Persia\u003c\/i\u003e was first published in English in London in 1815 and ‘brought him an honorary doctorate of laws from Oxford’ (\u003ci\u003eODNB\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on his direct diplomatic experience, Malcolm produced an account particularly valuable for contextualising contemporary Persian affairs; his ‘history was particularly valuable for contextualizing events surrounding his own time in Persia, and served as the standard western work for about a century’ (ibid.). The present French translation was begun by the politician and banker Pierre-Vincent Benoist (1758–1834) and completed by the philologist and Orientalist Louis-Matthieu Langlès (1763–1824), keeper of Oriental manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale (later renamed Bibliothèque du Roi), and founding director of the École nationale des langues orientales vivantes in Paris. The first volume opens with a thirty-six-page glossary of Persian words used in the text, giving their pronunciation in both English and French.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMarie Louise, eldest surviving child of Francis I, Emperor of Austria, became Empress of the French through her marriage to Napoleon in 1810. Following his abdication, she became sovereign of the Duchy of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla in northern Italy. During her reign, she greatly enlarged the holdings of Parma’s Biblioteca Palatina and commissioned a new reading room, the Salone Maria Luigia. Marie Louise’s personal library of some twelve thousand volumes reflected a wide range of interests, encompassing travel, natural history, music, medicine, philosophy and ancient and contemporary literature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMany volumes were bound in distinctive red morocco or half-morocco, bearing the arms or cypher of the imperial couple or, after 1814, of Marie Louise alone. After her death, the library was discreetly transferred to Austria, where it remained largely forgotten until its rediscovery in 1929 by the Berlin bookseller Martin Breslauer. Breslauer presented a small selection of the collection to the public at an exhibition at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin in 1931, advertising that it would have been ‘sold as whole’; having failed this ‘within a short time’, the books were ultimately sold separately.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eProvenance\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.      Marie Louise of Austria (1791–1847), Empress Consort of the French (1810–1814) and Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla (1814–1847).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2.      Included by Berlin bookseller Martin Breslauer (1871–1940) in his catalogue \u003ci\u003eNaturwissenschaften und Reisen: aus der Bibliothek der Kaiserin Marie Luise, zweiten Gemahlin Napoleons I\u003c\/i\u003e (Catalogue 50, 1933), no. 1192 (‘Rote Hmaroqbde. M. d. gekr. Monogr. D. Kaiserin Marie Luise’), priced ℛℳ   22.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3.      Raymond Poincaré (1860–1934), French conservative politician, three times as Prime Minister of France, and President of France from 1913 and 1920.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eChadenat 909\u003c\/i\u003e (‘\u003ci\u003eouvrage très estimé\u003c\/i\u003e’). \u003ci\u003eSee Lamort, Reliures impériales, 2004, p. 64\u003c\/i\u003e (‘\u003ci\u003eLes reliures portant ce monogramme proviennent de l’importante bibliothèque constituée à Parme après la chute de l’Empire\u003c\/i\u003e’).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU: \u003c\/strong\u003e2126635\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Henry Sotheran Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":65052289532281,"sku":"2126635","price":5000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0045\/2178\/7426\/files\/2126635.jpg?v=1793380272","url":"https:\/\/sotherans.co.uk\/products\/malcolm-john-sir-histoire-de-la-perse-depuis-les-tems-les-plus-anciens-jusqu-a-l-epoque-actuelle-suivie-d-observations-sur-la-religion-le-gouvernement-les-usages-et-les-moeurs-des-habitans-de-cette-contree-traduit-de-l-anglais","provider":"Sotheran's","version":"1.0","type":"link"}