Unpublished manuscript in the Marquis de Sade's hand
Table générale des matières. Baile. Martial. Tite-Live.
Folio. 15 pages.
€ 15.000,00
Reading notes for the redaction of his own works. As usual, de Sade composes a list of names of historical characters that interest him, indicating the page or chapter number of the source so as to find them again more easily. The section on Pierre Bayle spans three pages; it is particularly interesting for proving that the marquis de Sade indeed had read Bayle. A French Huguenot exiled in Rotterdam, the author of the "Dictionnaire Historique et Critique" promoted the atheist and materialist doctrines of the Enlightenment. While Bayle scholar was widely appreciated in the 18th century, his Dictionary was banned in France, and he was accused of heresy, obscenity and pyrrhonism.
The next five pages are taken up by references to the Latin poet Martial; subsequent notes are more expansive and concern various districts of Rome, their history (the circus, the baths), Tivoli, antiquities, religion, wine etc. The final page forms a table of contents of the Life of Famous Men and Women of Italy. Here, we find the name of Laura, Petrarch's lover and de Sade's ancestor, but also that of Aretino, an ancestor in spirit if not in blood. Notwithstanding the title, the present pages contain no reference to Livy: "Douceur du séjour de Tivoli, l'ivoire y conserve sa blancheur, bibliothèques leur antiquité, à Rome: invention de l'imprimerie [...] Forum novum, ou marché neuf: on envoyait à Rome des roses d'Egipte pendant l'hiver, ensuite on en éleva toute l'année [...] Respect de Silius pour le jour de la naissance de Ciceron. Pour son sépulcre à Naples, le poète Sannazar en fait autant, ainsi que pour une maison de Ciceron; tombeau de Virgile [...] Église de St André à Rome était l'ancien cimetière des Gaulois. Espèce de culte que les anciens rendaient aux statues semblables au notre [...] Montagne d'Albe: bon vignoble, c'était celui des princes. Vin de Souriente [in the margin: ou de Surrente]. Vin de Letie et de Situation, vin de Foudi: dissertation de Pline pour tous les bons vins [...]".
