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Auction archive: Lot number 179

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL, Lord. Autograph letter signed ("Noel Byron") to Jean Antoine Galignani in Paris; Genoa, 27 May 1923. 3 pages, 8vo. page 4 with address panel in Byron's hand, recipient's docket and the mostly intact original wax seal.

Auction 05.12.1991
5 Dec 1991
Estimate
US$5,500 - US$7,500
Price realised:
US$5,500
Auction archive: Lot number 179

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL, Lord. Autograph letter signed ("Noel Byron") to Jean Antoine Galignani in Paris; Genoa, 27 May 1923. 3 pages, 8vo. page 4 with address panel in Byron's hand, recipient's docket and the mostly intact original wax seal.

Auction 05.12.1991
5 Dec 1991
Estimate
US$5,500 - US$7,500
Price realised:
US$5,500
Beschreibung:

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL, Lord. Autograph letter signed ("Noel Byron") to Jean Antoine Galignani in Paris; Genoa, 27 May 1923. 3 pages, 8vo. page 4 with address panel in Byron's hand, recipient's docket and the mostly intact original wax seal. SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEPARTURE FOR GREECE An interesting letter, apparently unpublished, in which Byron corrects an order for books, comments on a translation of one of his works, and rather reluctantly accepts a gift from the Paris publisher and bookseller, who frequently reprinted Byron's own works. "I have received the books and have settled with Mons. Guarini (?) yr. correspondent for the amount - You have sent me by mistake the Life of Mr. Neckar by [Madame] de Stael - instead of the play on the Life of Madame de Staehl by Madame Neckar [cf. the list in the letter in the previous lot] - I pray you to send me the latter work as speedily as you can. "I regret much to hear that illness was the occasion of yr. not replying to my letter - I will send the Italian translation. It is not in M.S. by the way but has been printed only in New York by a private hand....If it should not be worth yr. while to reprint it at Paris - have the goodness to let me have the book [back] again - as I believe it to be the only copy of this version of 'the Prophecy of Dante.'" "With regard to your refusal to receiving any thing for the Journals and Newspapers sent to me from your Establishment -- I will not offend you by not accepting your present - at the same time it is rather an expensive gift - which I have some remorse in receiving....." In a postscript, the poet adds: "Could you get me a copy of Sir C. Harbury William's work which has lately been published in England in three volumes....as mentioned in the Quarterly Review. - If you send them send quickly - as it is not improbable that I may quit Genoa soon - although not yet decidely settled - and liable of course like every thing else - to change according to circumstances." The poet was spending his last weeks in Genoa, correcting proof for the final cantos (15 and 16) of Don Juan . In a letter to another correspondent Byron explained that the Parisian publisher and bookseller Galignani had "treated me with incivility and neglect in not replying to some letters...so as to render any peculiar deference to his feelings an object unnecessary on my part ( Letters ed. L. Marchand, vol. 10, p. 204). Byron had, though, become quite dependant upon Galignani to obtain for him English periodicals as well as current literature and criticism (cf. the preceding lot). Galignani was already enjoying considerable success and healthy profits from his Paris edition of Don Juan (Byron had turned the rights for French publication over to Murray, gratis, to his regret.) Byron apparently hoped Galignani might want to reprint an Italian translation of his Prophecy of Dante (18). This letter and Byron's previous letter to Galignani (the preceding lot) are the only evidence of such a plan. The translation he forwards to Galignani is, he reports here, an obscure New York printing of a translation by Lorenzo da Ponte. (The book is, as Byron suspected, rare.) We have additional evidence that Byron owned a copy - possibly one sent to him by da Ponte himself - sometime in 1823, as it is referred to in an undated note to Theresa Guiccioli which Marchand dates between February and July, 1823 (see Marchand, vol. 10, p. 93). It is not known, though, whether the poet ever received his copy of the book back from Galignani. Probably not, since Byron and his party, with a quantity of medical supplies and ammunition for the Greeks, boarded the ship Hercules in Genoa harbor and sailed on the 15th to aid the cause of Greek independence. This is the reason for his curious closing line about everything being mutable according to circumstances. Apparently, unpublished, not in Letters , ed. L. Marchand.

Auction archive: Lot number 179
Auction:
Datum:
5 Dec 1991
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Park Avenue
Beschreibung:

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL, Lord. Autograph letter signed ("Noel Byron") to Jean Antoine Galignani in Paris; Genoa, 27 May 1923. 3 pages, 8vo. page 4 with address panel in Byron's hand, recipient's docket and the mostly intact original wax seal. SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEPARTURE FOR GREECE An interesting letter, apparently unpublished, in which Byron corrects an order for books, comments on a translation of one of his works, and rather reluctantly accepts a gift from the Paris publisher and bookseller, who frequently reprinted Byron's own works. "I have received the books and have settled with Mons. Guarini (?) yr. correspondent for the amount - You have sent me by mistake the Life of Mr. Neckar by [Madame] de Stael - instead of the play on the Life of Madame de Staehl by Madame Neckar [cf. the list in the letter in the previous lot] - I pray you to send me the latter work as speedily as you can. "I regret much to hear that illness was the occasion of yr. not replying to my letter - I will send the Italian translation. It is not in M.S. by the way but has been printed only in New York by a private hand....If it should not be worth yr. while to reprint it at Paris - have the goodness to let me have the book [back] again - as I believe it to be the only copy of this version of 'the Prophecy of Dante.'" "With regard to your refusal to receiving any thing for the Journals and Newspapers sent to me from your Establishment -- I will not offend you by not accepting your present - at the same time it is rather an expensive gift - which I have some remorse in receiving....." In a postscript, the poet adds: "Could you get me a copy of Sir C. Harbury William's work which has lately been published in England in three volumes....as mentioned in the Quarterly Review. - If you send them send quickly - as it is not improbable that I may quit Genoa soon - although not yet decidely settled - and liable of course like every thing else - to change according to circumstances." The poet was spending his last weeks in Genoa, correcting proof for the final cantos (15 and 16) of Don Juan . In a letter to another correspondent Byron explained that the Parisian publisher and bookseller Galignani had "treated me with incivility and neglect in not replying to some letters...so as to render any peculiar deference to his feelings an object unnecessary on my part ( Letters ed. L. Marchand, vol. 10, p. 204). Byron had, though, become quite dependant upon Galignani to obtain for him English periodicals as well as current literature and criticism (cf. the preceding lot). Galignani was already enjoying considerable success and healthy profits from his Paris edition of Don Juan (Byron had turned the rights for French publication over to Murray, gratis, to his regret.) Byron apparently hoped Galignani might want to reprint an Italian translation of his Prophecy of Dante (18). This letter and Byron's previous letter to Galignani (the preceding lot) are the only evidence of such a plan. The translation he forwards to Galignani is, he reports here, an obscure New York printing of a translation by Lorenzo da Ponte. (The book is, as Byron suspected, rare.) We have additional evidence that Byron owned a copy - possibly one sent to him by da Ponte himself - sometime in 1823, as it is referred to in an undated note to Theresa Guiccioli which Marchand dates between February and July, 1823 (see Marchand, vol. 10, p. 93). It is not known, though, whether the poet ever received his copy of the book back from Galignani. Probably not, since Byron and his party, with a quantity of medical supplies and ammunition for the Greeks, boarded the ship Hercules in Genoa harbor and sailed on the 15th to aid the cause of Greek independence. This is the reason for his curious closing line about everything being mutable according to circumstances. Apparently, unpublished, not in Letters , ed. L. Marchand.

Auction archive: Lot number 179
Auction:
Datum:
5 Dec 1991
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Park Avenue
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