Extrait de Tite-Live sur l'Etrurie. On a pris tout ce qui y étoit.
[Vincennes donjon, between 1777 and 1782].
4to. 40 pp.
€ 35,000.00
Important working manuscript with reading notes of de Sade from Livy and concerning the history of the Etruscans. Many paragraphs are underlined or circled. Notes and insertions in the margins reveal repeated readings. Notes are in chronological order.
Having returned from Italy in 1776, Sade was jailed at Vincennes as early as 1777. There, he worked on the redaction of his Travel in Italy. For this purpose, he collected details, read old and modern writers, historians, travellers, and philosophers, including Livy. Even though his work had progressed, Sade abandoned his project of a travel narrative around 1782.