Rollin, Charles

Rollin, Charles

Histoire romaine, depuis la fondation de Rome jusqu'à la fin de la République [...].

Leyde, Wetstein et fils, 1772.

12mo (164 x 95). Marbled calf, gilt roulette in border, gilt arms in the center of the sides, smooth spine decorated with gilt tools, marbled edges (Contemporary binding). Later date slipcase in green morocco.

Precious copy annotated by Napoléon and part of his Longwood library in Saint Helena.

An imperial relic discovered in Paris in 1892 by the historian Gabriel Hanotaux, at a bookseller’s stall.

Volume IV alone of this work published in Leyde in 12 volumes from 1742 to 1773.

It is illustrated with a folding insert map (Armenia). The other volumes were divided up by Caroline Murat who gave them to her family.

From one library to another.

Two manuscript notes, one on the back of the first blank leaf, and the other on the first endpaper, recount the surprising genealogy of this volume IV of Rollin’s Histoire romaine from the library of the Emperor in Saint Helena to its reappearance in 1892 at the second-hand bookseller’s stall on the quays in Paris and its purchase by Gabriel Hanotaux.

The first note, dated January 23, 1837, is in the hand of Caroline Murat who, since her exile, had called herself the Countess of Lipona (an anagram of Napoli).

"For the compte de M… this book left by Emperor Napoléon to his son, and which fell to me as part of my inheritance after the death of my mother, heiress to her grandson, accept it, dear child; see in this gift, proof of the affection that I have for your family. I wish you all your father’s virtues; for you and your friends, I could wish for nothing better. C. de Lipona".

We learn that at the Emperor’s death, the work passed in turn to the library of the Duc de Reichstadt, then to the library of Laetizia Bonaparte, Napoléon’s mother, and finally to the library of Caroline Murat. The former Queen of Naples gave it to the young son of Jean Michel Agar, Comte de Mosbourg in 1837. The Comte de Mosbourg was close to Joachim Murat, alongside whom he had studied at the Collège Royal de Cahors and was minister of Finance to the King of Naples. His son, Michel Agar, second Comte de Mosbourg (1824-1892), was the Ambassador of France in Vienna.

In 1892, Gabriel Hanotaux bought the work on the quays and specified the circumstances of this surprising new acquisition. "This book is an ornament of great curiosity. As a result of the note that is on the back of the second endpaper, it appears that it belonged to the Emperor, his son, his mother and his sister, Caroline de Naples who signed "C. de Lipona". It was sold in the pile of books at the death of the Comte de Mosbourg, our former minister in Vienna, who lived on quai Voltaire, n° 9. This is how I bought it in the boxes on the quays, for 0,50 f, on Dec 10,.1892. This volume contains the account of the Punic Wars. It must have gone with the Emperor to S^te Hélène and it probably figures in the ‘four hundred volumes chosen from my library among those that were most used in my journey’ that is mentioned in inventory A attached to Napoléon’s will". In an article of the Bulletin du bibliophile (December 15, 1899), Georges Vicaire recounts this incredible discovery in great detail.

"He often browsed Rollin"

The Longwood library was under the responsibility of Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis (1788–1856), known under the name of Mameluke Ali and a member of the Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard. A loyal servant of the Emperor during his two exiles, he served as valet as well as librarian. Thanks to the detailed description that he made of Napoléon’s library, discovered in 2019 by Jacques Jourquin and published in 2021 (La dernière passion de Napoléon : La bibliothèque de Sainte-Hélène), we know exactly what it consisted of.

This volume was probably part of the set indexed under number 727 in the catalogue of books written by Saint-Denis, marked with an asterisk identifying the works that really belonged to Napoléon, and which may have come from his collection in Rambouillet or Trianon. It is also indicated as belonging to a group of 400 books that Napoléon bequeathed in his will to his son.

An inveterate reader, Napoléon was immersed in the writings of Rollin from a very young age and already annotated his Histoire ancienne in 1788. The Emperor "was also interested in ancient history that he discovered for the first time through Rollin’s work, before becoming acquainted with the historians, Thucydides and especially Herodotus" (Jacques-Olivier Boudon, "Napoléon et l’hellénisme", Anabase, traditions et réceptions de l’antiquité, n° 20, 2014, p. 16).

Mameluke Ali reported that "he often thumbed through Rollin, he found him long-winded and too vague and good-natured" (Emmanuel de Las Cases, Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, Paris, Ernest Bourdin 1842, volume I, p. 292). "Rollin, observed Napoléon, is always superficial and doesn’t explain enough the mechanism behind common judgments. (Masson, Napoléon inconnu. Papiers inédits (1786-1793), Paris, Ollendorff, 195, p. 302).

It is worth noting that this fourth volume is devoted to the Punic Wars and we know the admiration that the Emperor had for Hannibal, considering him as the first general of the antiquity. "No plan more vast, more far-reaching has been executed by men; Alexander’s expedition was far less adventurous, much easier" he acknowledged (Mémoires de Napoléon, VII^e note on the Considérations sur l'art de la guerre by General Rogniat).

In the margins of pages 322 and 323, Napoléon recalculates in pencil the total of the various corps of troupes which Rollin had arrived at.

The other volumes of the Histoire romaine de Rollin known to date :

-volume II, which belonged to Joachim Pepoli, son of Guy Thadée Pepoli, Comte de Castiglione and Laetitia Murat, daughter of Caroline, had been purchased in 1898 by François Castanié (Georges Vicaire, Bulletin du bibliophile, op. cit.).

-volume VIII, gifted by Laetitia Murat to her son-in-law Gian Mauro Zucchini Solimei, the first husband of her daughter Paolina (Quaritch, 2025).

-volume XI, given by Caroline Murat to Mr. de Mercey, son of a former general administrator of the Empire in Italy and director of the Beaux-arts under the Second Empire. The work was bequeathed to the library of Ajaccio by his son, Doctor de Mercey (Georges Vicaire, Bulletin du bibliophile, op. cit.).