Charlotte Corday, tragédie en cinq actes et en vers par J.-B. Salles député girondin. Publiée pour la première fois, d'après le manuscrit original, avec une lettre inédite de Barbaroux, par M. Georges Moreau-Chaslon (Jean-Baptiste Salle)

AN EXTRAORDINARY LARGE-PAPER COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST PLAY ABOUT CHARLOTTE CORDAY AND JEAN-PAUL MARAT (and the only one written by someone who knew the main characters!), ENRICHED WITH ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DOCUMENTS AND PORTRAITS. 224 pp + three facsimiles (complete). Salle (not "Salles", as appears on the title-page) was a French revolutionary guillotined in 1794 at the age of 34. In 1793, While in hiding in St-Emilion, he composed this play, in verse. It remained unpublished until this 1864 edition. A LARGE-PAPER COPY PRINTED ON FOLIO ON FINE LAID PAPER. Vicaire (VII, col. 180-181) mentions no such copies. This is A PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed and signed by Moreau-Chaslon to M. Diot. Bound in is a signed autograph letter from Moreau-Chaslon to Diot, discussing this play and Salle's other literary work, his poetic account of Danton's descent into Hell. On the conjugal blank, Diot has written a long note, signed and dated 1878, about his acquaintance with François Ponsard (the dedicatee of the book) and the events that led to the books publication. We also find a mounted note from another Jean-Baptiste Salle, in which he discusses having discovered the only known portrait of Salle--and both a photograph of the potrait and a careful hand-drawn copy are mounted alongside this note. Folio. Bound in contemporary quarter pebbled leather and pebbled boards. A modest binding, and somewhat worn (but completely solid). Internally uncut and clean, with the paper very bright. A UNIQUE COPY OF THE FIRST PLAY ABOUT CORDAY AND MARAT.