STENDHAL, Henri Beyle, dit` Lot n° 1231

Tour of Italy in 1811 by M. de Léry. - Manuscript partly autograph. Without place or date, [1813]. In-folio (330 x 220 mm) of 356 pp. on 186 leaves, paginations in brown ink (1-372). Each page has been carefully set in red ink. More than 20 pages have been left blank, but they are all ruled. In the inner corner of page 367 as on page 368, Stendhal has placed in his hand a colophon repeated twice: ? finished transcribing on April 13, 1813 ? The numerous current titles, added in this single copy, are each time autographs of Stendhal and date from 1813; green vellum, title calligraphy in ink on the upper plate, dark green vellum corners, yellow edges (binding of the time with the label of the paper merchant 'Chalet'). Exceptional Stendhalian manuscript, abundantly corrected by the author This is one of the most precious testimonies known about the transition from diary to fiction in Stendhal's work: the manuscript of this Tour of Italy in 1811, redacted in 1813, will in fact become the backbone of Rome, Naples and Florence in 1817. Because of its too intimate content and the Italian Wars, Stendhal will never publish it as it is: it is the only complete manuscript remaining that bears witness to the elaboration of Stendhal's literary work. The volume belonged to Louis Crozet, universal legatee of Beyle, then to Paul Royer. Of all the books published by Stendhal during his lifetime, neither manuscript nor corrected proofs remain. Victor Del Litto insisted several times on this specific character of Stendhal's work. ? Nothing remains of the novels that Stendhal published: no preparatory notes, no drafts, nor a fortifiable copy having been used for printing. This emptiness is one of the incomprehensible features of the Stendhalian personality. On the other hand, Stendhal destroyed almost nothing of the unfinished works? (Une somme stendhalienne, II, Paris, H. Champion, 2002, p. 1660). For the non-fiction works published b