FONTANES, Louis Jean-Pierre, marquis de (owner). ANQUETIL, N. S. ~ Extraits de Tacite, et Remarques sur plusieurs passages du texte. Paris: Charles Barrois; Testu et C[ompagni]e, 1810.
12mo (165 × 90 mm), pp. [4], xxiv, 458, [2], with half-title and errata leaf. Contemporary red straight-grain morocco gilt, both covers with armorial paper onlays, gilt edges, green silk endpapers. Slightly rubbed, corners with a little wear, upper cover with some staining. Early inscriptions (see note).
First edition. The verso of the front free endpaper has an early manuscript note: ‘Taken out of the Empress Josephine’s Library at Malmaison, when the Allied armies entered Paris in 1815’. The half-title bears another early inscription in pencil: ‘Dear Edward, you will find me at No. 2 Rue Trudon near Rue Camartin, if you arrive early come and see me, if I am not on duty, I shall call here about three o’clock. Yours Wyndham’.
Whether the book was ever in the library at Malmaison is debateable: the arms are of Louis Jean-Pierre, marquis de Fontanes (1757-1821) as a comte senateur de l’empire. Man of letters Fontanes had fled France at the Revolution (as a supporter of a reformed monarchy) and was associated with Chateaubriand. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Napoleon, who commissioned him to write an éloge on George Washington in 1800. He became professeur de belles-lettres at the Collège des Quatre-Nations, and a member of the Institut de France. Thereafter he gathered honours and became a major part of the Imperial educational reforms. He was named comte de l’Empire in 1808. After Napoleon’s fall he resumed his Royalist stance and was names Louis XVIII’s ministre de l’instruction publique. He is buried in Père Lachaise.