Beschreibung
8vo pp. 31, [1] blank; front free endpaper with manuscript note by the translator; contemporary pattern paper wrappers, spine worn; limited to three hundred copies, of which this is no. 287. A rare bi-lingual publication with parallel Italian and French text of this indictment of public corruption and Napoleonic politics, with a manuscript note by the translator. The work is based on two French pamphlets. The first, which discusses corruption and perjury of public officials, was produced in Paris on 12 August 1815. The second is undated, but as it offers a disquisition on the events which led up to Napoleon's escape from Elba, must date to early 1815. The two together outline the corruption which was endemic in the French imperial machine, and are produced here in Italian by one Rolando Deroman. Deroman's signature appears three times; to the title page, to the prefatory note on the translation, and to a curious note facing the title-page, in which he transcribes a letter in French from Comte Morra [di Lavriano], dated October 1823, eight years after the publication of the work. Major of the Division of Turin, Morra thanks Deroman sincerely for a copy of his translation, describing it as un service rendu a l'humanité. Turin was closely entwined with France. Like the rest of Piedmont it had been annexed by the French Empire in 1802, and the city was been the seat of the prefecture of Pô until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, when the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was restored with Turin as its capital. These were contemporary events, and works which highlighted the bankruptcy of the French system were key to re-establishing Italian national identity (Broer). Although French customs, institutions and language would continue to inflect Piedmontese culture, the region led the movement towards the Risorgimento of 1861, when Turin became the capital of the new Italian state. Morra di Lavriano's family were closely involved in this process; he was a Torinese Major-General and his son, Roberto Morra di Lavriano (1830-1917), was a prominent Italian senator, general corps of the Royal Army, aide-de-camp of the King, and ambassador to Russia. Rare, no copy in OCLC, ICCU records a copy at Casale Monferrato; see: Michael Broer, The Napoleonic Empire in Italy, 1796-1814: Cultural Imperialism in a European Context? (Macmillan, 2004), pp. 213-274. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 2690
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