Lot 71
Napoleon I (1869-1821) French military and political leader; Emperor of the French (1804-15). Autograph Manuscript, five lines in Napoleon's hand from the autograph manuscript of his Memoirs, 3¼ x 8 inches. Beginning, "au mois de mai 1795 Napoleon quitta le commandement de l'armée d'italie…." ["In May 1795 Napoleon left the command of the Army of Italy."] Certified at the foot by Napoleon's companion and biographer Emmanuel Las Cases, "écrit par Napoleon à Longwood 1816" ["written by Napoleon at Longwood 1816."], " Passy, June 1, 1824…"
Under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba in April 1814, but managed to escape less than a year later (February 26, 1815) and took power for "the Hundred Days." Defeated at Waterloo on June 18, 1815, by British and Prussian forces led by Wellington and von Blücher, Napoleon was sent in exile to the remote island of St. Helena, where he lived until his death on May 5, 1821.
Longwood was the home of the former Lieutenant-Governor into which Napoleon moved in December 1815. Count Emmanuel Las Cases (1766-1842), a former naval officer who spoke English, was Napoleon's secretary on St. Helena. Napoleon dictated his memoirs to Las Cases and his son, also named Emmanuel and called "young Las Cases" until Las Cases was expelled from St. Helena by Governor Sir Hudson Lowe in November 1816. From his own notes, Las Cases would publish the very successful Memoires of the Life, Exile and Conversations of the Emperor Napoleon in 1823.
After Las Cases departure from St. Helena, Napoleon continued to dictate to others, but had not finished his memoirs when he died. Memoirs of Napoleon was published in 10 volumes (1829-1831) by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, who had been Napoleon's private secretary from 1797 to 1802. A fragment of Napoleon's memoirs, written in his own hand, is extremely rare.
There is a stamp at lower right from the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, a noble Scottish library started by the Lindsay family in the late 16th century, among whose collection were documents of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic period. Due to a reversal of the family fortune in the 1880s, many of the books were sold off. Those pertaining to Napoleon were probably sold to Quaritch in 1924 or by auction in 1947/48.
Estimated Value $20,000-UP
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