142: Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Precious document Start Price EUR 2,500.00 Current Price EUR 2,500.00 Time Left - Bid Count 1 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Wednesday, December 10, 2008 End Time Wednesday, December 10, 2008 Location Turin, Italy See more about '142: Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Precious document' Description Current Lot Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Precious document of historical and literary relevance linking Victor Hugo to the figure of Giuseppe Garibaldi: it the trial print made before printing the original, first edition of the famous poem Lo voix de Guernesey (1867). This paper shows autograph amendments made to the printed text and, on verso, a signed autograph dedication, 'A mon Eloquent et cher ami Lecanu', written by the great French writer. Actually, it is the trial print (cm 48 × 17) of the poem composed by Hugo at Hauteville House, in November 1867, which was dedicated to Giuseppe Garibaldi to celebrate the troupes' sacrifice in the fight of Mentana. The person to whom the dedication was made, Adolphe Lecanu ('avocat à la Cour d'appel de Paris') is considered as the true author of the volume Chez Victor Hugo, par un passant, avec 12 eaux-fortes (1864), which many attributed to Charles Hugo instead. Lecanu's name may be fund in the work's frontispice whilst only the illustrator's name, Maxime Lalanne, is written on the cover. This work's first edition was printed in Bruxelles, at the Brismée printery: it had a printed cover and sixteen pages, 16mo, with a text that we may define as 'corrected' in respect to the one shown in this exemplar, which was certainly printed as a trial at T. M. Bichard printery, Guernesey, in the island where Victor Hugo had long been exiled. Therefore, this document is the only exemplar of the poem's draft that has survived to this day. This edition counts sixteen pages, as the Belgian one, but differing from the latter as printed on pelure paper, 32mo format, as easier to distribute via mail. Hugo's autograph corrections have been made in correspondence with the second, fourth, sixth and eighth strophe, adding punctuation and correcting the word 'donc' into 'dons' (which will remain 'donc' in the definitive version): 'Ah! Race italienne, il était ton appui! / Ah! Vous auriez eu Rome, ô peuples, grâce à lui; / Grâce au bras du guerrier, grâce ou caeur du prophète. / D'abord il l'eut donnée ensuite il l'eut refaite [...] O peuple, noir dormeur, quand t'éveilleras-tu? / Rester couché sied mal à qui fut abattu / Tu dors, avec ton sang sur les mains, et, stigmate / Que t'a laissé /'objecte et dure casemate [...] L'empire est une cave, et toutes les espèces / De nuit te tiennent sous leurs brumes époisses. / Tu dors, oubliant tout, ta grandeur, son complot, / La liberté, le droit, ces lumières d'en haut; / Tu fermes les yeux, lourd, gisant sous affreux voiles, /Sans souci de l'affront que tu fois aux étoiles!...'. Creases, foxing, uneven edge cutting due to the fact that the sheet was plied and reduced to smaller format before sending it to Hugo's friend Lecanu, possibly in a design of having his opinion before proceeding with the definitive print. Place a Bid!