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FROM NAPOLEON'S LIBRARY ON ST. HELENA HYDE, EDWARD. Histoire de la rebellion, et des guerres civiles d'Angleterre, 6 vol., The Hague, L. & H. van Dole et. al., 1704-1709
Sold for £16,500 inc. premium
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FROM NAPOLEON'S LIBRARY ON ST. HELENA
Footnotes
Provenance:
Napoleon Bonaparte
Removed from St. Helena by the British Government in 1821
Martin Bossange, A catalogue of the library of the late Emperor Napoleon, 1823
Sotheby's, 23 July 1823
George Arnald R.A. (1763-1841)
French private collection
After Napoleon's death on St. Helena, much of his last library was divided by the executors among heirs and friends, the remaining portion being removed from the island by order of the British Government and sold to the London-based French bookseller Martin Bossange who issued a catalogue. Almost half of the books in the catalogue did not sell, and Bossange consigned them to Sotheby's where they were offered on 23 July 1823.
Each title page in the present set has a circular brown ink ownership stamp with the imperial eagle, and vol. 1 is inscribed on the front free endpaper by artist George Arnald R.A. (1763-1841), "This work consisting of 6 vol's. was the property and part of the library of the late Emperor Napoleon at Saint Helena and purchased by me at the sale." In addition, tipped to the front pastedown is the auctioneer's bill, showing that Arnald also purchased lot 24 ("Fequeries, Memoirs") and lot 115 ("A Letter signed by Napoleon").
Originally published between 1702 and 1704 as The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, this work by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, was the first detailed account from a key player in the events it covered. Its republican subject matter would clearly have interested Napoleon.

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