Cellier Du Fayel (Narcisse-Honoré) - La Vérité sur Mlle Le Normand. Mémoires, révélations intimes des mystères de la Sibylle et de ses - 1845

Cellier Du Fayel (Narcisse-Honoré)
The Truth about Mlle Le Normand. Memoirs, intimate revelations of the mysteries of the Sibyl and her adepts or consultants.
Paris, C. Tresse, publisher, Palais-Royal, Chartres gallery, 2 and 3, 1845.

In-8°, 153 pages, table and publisher's notes not numbered. Contemporary binding in black percaline, smooth spine adorned with gold fillets, gilt title: Mademoiselle Lenormand.
Original edition, apparently unique, of this rare biography of Marie-Anne Lenormand (1768-1843), the famous cartomancer nicknamed “the Sibyl of Paris,” consulted by many personalities of the Revolution and of the Empire.
The author, Narcisse-Honoré Cellier du Fayel, professor at the Royal Atheneum and director of the journal Le Génie des femmes, personally knew Mlle Lenormand during the final years of her life. Initially skeptical, he became one of her confidants and gathered her confidences. Modern tarot historians regard his testimony as one of the most plausible and valuable contemporary portraits of the clairvoyant; a specialized study even calls him the “best source on her life.”
The work notably includes a biographical notice, the account of Mlle Lenormand's consultations and predictions, developments on her “familiar spirits,” the fixation of fortune and dreams.

Autograph signature of authentication by Cellier du Fayel on the verso of the title, under the printed note: “Any copy not bearing the author's signature shall be deemed counterfeit”;
Several pages reproducing in fac-simile two autograph letters from Mlle Lenormand addressed to Cellier du Fayel, dated August 11, 1838 and August 3, 1839, with her very characteristic signature;
The presence of Cellier du Fayel's signature is in accordance with the authenticated edition: it is interesting, but does not constitute a nominative dispatch. Likewise, the letters from Mlle Lenormand are lithographic reproductions provided in the work.

A rare and sought-after work on the history of divination, cartomancy and tarot in the 19th century. It remains an essential contemporary source on Mlle Lenormand and now figures in specialized collections, notably at the University of Chicago. University of Chicago Library