"OFFICER OF THE PICARDIE REGIMENT (L')". - MANUSCRIT... Lot 23

"OFFICER OF THE PICARDIE REGIMENT (L')". - MANUSCRIT entitled "Mémoires historiques sur la Corse". 18th century. In-8, 229 pp. in garnet-red morocco, ribbed spine cloisonné and fleuronné, triple gilt fillet framing the covers with fleurons at the corners and in the spandrels, roulette decorating the cups and endpapers, gilt edges; a modern handwritten title leaf added (modern binding by Alain Devauchelle in the taste of the period). AN IMPORTANT TEMOIGNAGE ON CORSICA BEFORE THE REVOLUTION, by a French officer who arrived on the island in June 1774, was assigned to the citadel of Bastia and left in 1777. The author presents Corsica, dealing successively with geography (including climate), agriculture, trade, wildlife and domestic animals, civil and military administration, the clergy, and at length with the population and its customs. It also traces Corsican history from the Middle Ages, but especially under Genoese and then French domination, with a development on Pasquale Paoli, and on the causes of the Niolo uprising (May-June 1774). The author, who arranges his ideas in chapters but without any preconceived plan, claims to be writing for himself with no intention of being published, and to be seeking the truth and seeking to render it with a frankness that he believes should be the guarantee of his objectivity. His text is the product of his personal investigations among Corsicans of various social classes (including his housewife) and in the offices of the French administration, where he had access to documents such as a memoir by the Marquis de Cursay and letters from the Marquis de Chauvelin (concerning French interventions in Corsica in 1749 and 1768). It is also the result of a critical reading of previous testimonies, whose contradictions and abusive tendency to generalize from limited experiences he points out. PIERRE DE MASCLARY DE SAINT-VINCENT ? The author of these Mémoires historiques does not name himself, but gives a few indications of his identity: he belongs to the régiment de Picardie (p. 25), speaks of his grenadier company in the 3rd battalion of the régiment de Picardie (p. 26), declares himself happy to be sent with his corps from Toulon to Montpellier, and disappointed when he learns that he is to embark directly for Corsica without passing through Montpellier (p. 25), made a trip to Provence in 1776 (p. 79), and left Corsica in 1777 (p. 68). His level of education classifies him a priori as an officer, and he seems to have been with the Picardie regiment since at least 1772 (as suggested by the regiment's annual hospitalization table, pp. 78-79). A study of the annual État militaire de France reveals that, among company officers, only two grenadier captains remained in Corsica from 1774 to 1777, when they transferred to the régiment de Provence (created in March 1776 from the 1st and 3rd battalions of the régiment de Picardie), garrisoned in Nîmes in August 1777. The two men were Philippe-Honoré Aubé de Braquemont (1740-1808), from a Champagne family, and Pierre de Masclary de Saint-Vincent (b. 1733, retired in 1777), from a family of Italian origin who had come to Comtat-Venaissin and then settled in part in Montpellier. The latter seems, until further notice, to offer attractive reasons for a probable identification. Provenance: Marie Reynaud, "who lived in Bastia for some time, around 1850, engaging in historical research" (according to Vincent de Caraffa). - Xavier Versini (double bookplate, his signature on p. 11 and his initials on p. 26). Attached is an autograph note from Versini. ENCLOSED, A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF THIS TEXT. Bastia, [Bulletin de la] Société des sciences historiques et naturelles de la Corse, fasc. n° 100 à 102, [avril-juin] 1889 (Bastia, imprimerie et librairie ve Eugène Ollagnier). In-8, cornered half-chagrin, spine ribbed with flowers; spine faded (modern binding). A copy of the present manuscript (with cross-references to the original pagination) was made in the 19th century by several hands, including that of a daughter of Philippe de Caraffa, librarian and archivist of Bastia. This copy belonged to Dr. Antoine Mattei and is now kept at the Bastia municipal library (Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France. Départements, t. IX, Paris, Librairie Plon, 1888, p. 397, no. 15). The editions of the text available today were based on this copy: first, extracts in L'Aigle corse of June 5 and 15, 1868, then a complete version in 1889, compiled by Vincent de Caraffa under the title Mémoires historiques sur la Corse par un officier du régiment de Picardie, 1774-177.