TILSIT, OCCUPATION OF POLAND, AUSTRIAN CAMPAIGN... - Lot 85

Lot n° 85
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TILSIT, OCCUPATION OF POLAND, AUSTRIAN CAMPAIGN... - Lot 85
TILSIT, OCCUPATION OF POLAND, AUSTRIAN CAMPAIGN... [MONTESQUIOU-FEZENSAC (Anatole de). Autograph manuscript. June 21, 1807-August 1811. In-12, (214) pp. in discontinuous pagination, several passages crossed out but legible having probably served for the writing of his memories. All in an in-12 volume bound in bradel paper-covered boards stamped in gray with sponge, pencil housing on the gutter edge, speckled edges; 4 pp. missing (pp. 77-81), binding worn. FUTURE GENERAL AND PAIR OF FRANCE, ANATOLE DE MONTESQUIOU (1788-1878) belonged to a family of the highest French nobility rallied to the Revolution and the Empire: he was the son of the emperor's grand chamberlain Élisabeth-Pierre de Montesquiou and the governor of the king of Rome Louise-Charlotte Françoise Le Tellier, and thus the grandson of the general and politician Anne-Pierre de Montesquiou-Fezensac. Having chosen a career in the army, he participated in the campaigns of the Empire as aide-de-camp to Marshal Davout (October 1808-March 1809), officer of Napoleon I (March 1809-March 1812), aide-de-camp to Marshal Berthier (March 1812-January 1814) and then again officer of the emperor (January-April 1814). He was promoted to lieutenant in 1808, captain in 1810, squadron leader in March 1812 and colonel in 1813. The July Revolution made him a general and a peer of France. DIARY OF AN AIDE DE CAMP OF MARECHAL DAVOUT, THEN ORDINANCE OFFICER OF NAPOLEON IEr. Begun at Tilsit in June and July 1807, this diary gives a table of the losses suffered by the Russians and the Prussians in the Polish campaign (pp. 8-9) and gives a copy of certain provisions of the treaty concluded on July 7 at Tilsit between Napoleon I and the Tsar Alexander I. It continues in Poland from July to September 1808, while Anatole de Montesquiou was serving with Marshal Davout, governor of the country, notably in Breslau (Wrocław), Skierniewice (Marshal Davout's castle near Warsaw), and Młociny (the house of the same near Warsaw, occupied after the burning of Skierniewice). There are allusions to Polish personalities frequented at that time: General Włodzimierz Potocki, Countess Potocka, Anna Tyszkiewicz, wife of Napoleon I's chamberlain Aleksander Potocki (of whom Anatole de Montesquiou has kept here a drawing she drew for him on the back of a playing card), and especially Princess Radziwill, of whom he paints a long and admiring portrait ("one of the most extraordinary women I have seen," pp. 93-96). With a text in Polish and notes on the grammar of this language. This is followed by the account of his journey from Poland to Paris, from September 1808 to January 1809 (pp. 65-93 and 96-98), passing through Wrocław, Berlin, notably at Charlottenburg Castle, and Erfurt. The diary, interrupted for a time, resumed during the Austrian campaign, in Vienna and at Schönbrunn Castle, from May 15 to September 26, 1809 (pp. 101-120) : Anatole de Montesquiou records two missions he carried out for Napoleon I, one to the King of Saxony, the other to Prince Eugene, and he announces the news of the battle of Essling, "a great battle... fought on May 21, three leagues from Vienna beyond the Danube. He also evokes an evening at the princess Czartoryska's house where, among others, Dominique-Vivant Denon told the assembly a memory of the expedition of Egypt. For the following years, Anatole de Montesquiou notes the missions that were entrusted to him by the emperor: a trip to Vienna in March 1810 to take the portrait of Napoleon I to Marie-Louise (p. 165), a tour of inspection in July and August 1811 to Niort, Sainte, La Rochelle and the island of Ré. He announces the nomination of his own mother as governess of the king of Rome, evokes the enmity of Corvisart towards this one, and gives an account of the central moment of the baptism of the king of Rome on June 9, 1811 (pp. 169-170). This diary offers moreover an excellent example of the sociability of the time: Anatole de Montesquiou collects there quantities of anecdotes seen or heard concerning his relations or of salient personalities, the marshal Davout, the duchess of Bassano, Girodet (for his portrait of the actress mademoiselle Lange naked), etc. He also records all sorts of good words, often about celebrities of the time, for example: "Since Empress Josephine is no longer on the throne, it is said that she lives as a miser (in Navarre) [the name of the castle that Josephine owned near Evreux]", or again, of the Prince of Ligne, "The Papacy goes from Pius to Pius". He also records the philosophical thoughts that come to him, and various quotations taken from his readings in the works of Benjamin Franklin, Marmontel, Dominique-Vivant Denon, etc. He keeps a memory of poems (especially of short stories) composed by relations such as General Ricard ("chez Mme Antoine Potocka"). To note also u
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