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A French general's correspondence with an Italian lady

[MEYER von SCHAUENSEE, Maurus].
Lettres familieres sur la Carinthie et la Stirie, adressées a madame Bianchi, de Bologne. Par un officier général Français, prisonnier de guerre en Autriche. 1799.
Leoben (Austria) and Paris, Louis-François Prault, an IX [= 1800/01]. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page. Contemporary green half calf, gold-tooled spine. [8], 208 pp.
€ 1,850
Rare first and only edition of a collection of letters from the French general (born in Lucerne to a Swiss family) Maurus Meyer von Schauensee (1765-1802) on his campaigns in Carinthia (Kärnten) and Styria (Steiermark) to Madame Bianchi in Bologna. He had joined the French Revolution in 1789 and fought in the French Revolutionary army. The Austrians captured him at the Siege of Mantua in late July 1799, and are said to have sent him to Hungary. He wrote the present letters on the way, from "Pletz" (en route from Verona to Tarvisio?) on 19 August 1799 to Leoben (near Graz), on 10 September 1799, where his letters were nominally published (but they were sold by the printer Prault in Paris). The Austrians released him in 1800, however, and he is said to have fought in Napoleons Egyptian campaign. Meyer died in a yellow fever epidemic in 1802, during a campaign on the island of Hispaniola (San Domingo).
Very nice copy. Barbier II, p. 1271; Pinkerton, A general collection of the best and most interesting voyages and travels in all parts of the world, XVII, p. 43; WorldCat (3 copies).
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Autographs, documents & manuscripts  >  Autographs & Letters
Europe  >  France, Greece & Italy
Military history  >  Military History 18th Century