Aloysius Bertrand / Félicien Rops - Gaspard de la Nuit. Fantaisies à la manière de Rembrandt [Reliure de Leuret] - 1868

Magnificent copy of this edition, a rare edition adorned with a splendid frontispiece by Felicien Rops, first printing on China paper (see essentials of the BNF).
Second edition, partly original, of Aloysius Bertrand's masterpiece, published by Poulet-Malassis. The original edition, very rare, was published in 1842 by Labitte. Limited to 402 numbered copies, one of 350 on Hollande called ruche; this one no. 127.

The copy indeed bears the Poulet-Malassis mark and the justification leaflet, which is often missing.

Very well bound in a fine binding signed by Leuret, executed in half aubergine morocco, with a smooth spine, decorated with a mosaic of portico, lunette, and title piece, with gilt edges.
Preserved yellow printed covers, without the spine, lined on the reverse side. Margins untrimmed. Some signs of use. Interior fresh and clean.
Provenance: heraldic ex-libris of 'Cerruti di Castiglione' on the upper cover.

This edition was a painful birth! Prepared over a long period, it could only be released in March 1869. Several factors caused significant manufacturing delays: a typesetters' strike, prolonged by the stubbornness of a printer 'stubborn as a Flemish'; the death of the printer's son, the illness of the etcher, the death of the binder's father, not to mention Félicien Rops's nonchalance and health issues! Charles Asselineau was the mastermind behind this edition. He had dedicated a prominent place to Aloysius Bertrand in his romantic bibliography.


Author: Aloysius Bertrand (1807-1841), writer; Félicien Rops (1833-1898), engraver.

Gaspard de la Nuit, fantasies in the style of Rembrandt and Callot.
New enlarged edition of pieces in prose and verse, drawn from newspapers and literary collections of the time, and preceded by an introduction by M. Charles Asselineau.

EDITOR: Brussels, European Library of C. Miquardt, P., at René Pincebourde, 1868, 1 vol. in-8° (4) pages (half-title, title, Poulet-Malassis mark, and justification) - xxviii pages (introduction) - 276 pages - (2) pages (erratum and catalogue of Romantic Curiosities).


"Gaspard de la Nuit," titled
This series of inspiration paintings, both romantic, gothic, and pictorial, foreshadows symbolism and offers a picturesque view of the Middle Ages, revisited through the lens of the poet's inner visions' magic. Recognizing masters like Hugo, Gautier, Byron, and Nodier, Bertrand calls upon a whole arsenal of romantic elements (castles, gothic steeples, monasteries, sylphs, gnomes, fairies, demons, alchemists, adventurers, brigands, vagabonds, Sabbaths, gallows, etc.) which he presents through a personal vision that is both fanciful and ironic. Often strange or fantastical, these paintings full of magic and esotericism are also influenced by chiaroscuro in painting, as indicated by the subtitle.
Although it was highly appreciated by a few connoisseurs and honored with a notice from Sainte-Beuve, this text remained unknown until it was hailed by Charles Baudelaire in his preface to Spleen de Paris. It was Baudelaire who also helped attribute the authorship of the prose poem to Bertrand (which other authors rather attribute to Maurice de Guérin) and persuaded Charles Asselineau to reprint, with Poulet-Malassis, Gaspard de la Nuit in 1869. Later, other symbolist and surrealist poets, such as Stéphane Mallarmé, Pierre Reverdy, Max Jacob, or André Breton, would recognize Bertrand as an inspirer.