£295.00
STAËL, Germaine de. Corinne, ou l’Italie. Paris: Librairie de Firmin Didot Frères, 1845.
French-language edition with engraved portrait frontispiece of Madame de Staël. Bound in contemporary or near-contemporary quarter leather over marbled boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt.
With the large engraved armorial bookplate of Rev. Eugene Augustus Hoffman to the front pastedown and manuscript ownership inscription dated May 1848. General Theological Seminary Library label and institutional markings present.
Binding considerably worn, with rubbing and losses to the leather, particularly along the joints and extremities; boards rubbed and marked. Foxing and spotting internally, including to the portrait frontispiece. The photographs form part of the condition description.
Year: 1845
Edition: Later Edition and Illustrated Edition
Publisher: Librairie de Firmin Didot Frères, Paris
First published in 1807, Corinne, ou l’Italie is the celebrated novel by Germaine de Staël, one of the most influential European intellectuals of the Napoleonic age. Combining romance, travel writing, aesthetics and reflections on national identity, the novel follows the brilliant poet and improvisatrice Corinne through Italy and her ill-fated relationship with the Scottish nobleman Oswald.
The work became one of the defining literary portraits of Italy for nineteenth-century European readers, presenting Rome, Naples, Florence and the artistic heritage of Italy through the eyes of an exceptionally independent female protagonist.
This 1845 Paris edition carries an additional layer of history through its distinguished ecclesiastical provenance. It bears the engraved armorial bookplate of Rev. Eugene Augustus Hoffman (1829–1902), together with his ownership inscription, and was subsequently held by the General Theological Seminary Library, New York.
An appealing association copy of one of the great works of nineteenth-century European literature. Corinne occupies an important position in the development of Romantic literature, women’s writing and the European literary conception of Italy.
The Hoffman provenance gives this particular copy a history beyond the text itself, while the 1845 ownership inscription provides a firmly dated nineteenth-century association. The engraved portrait frontispiece and period binding retain the character of a book that has passed through nearly two centuries of institutional and private ownership.
