The comedy The Mad Day, or The Marriage of Figaro is a vivid satire of society during the Ancien Régime and of aristocratic privileges; it was first performed on April 27, 1784 and presaged the beginning of the French Revolution, which it doubtlessly helped bring about. After the fall of the monarchy in 1792, the comedy was again performed on several Parisian stages, albeit the concluding songs were modified by Beaumarchais. The final stanza of the stuttering judge Don Gusman Brid’oison, which in 1784 had concluded Tout fini-it par des chansons, was adapted to the difficulties of the period: Pour tromper sa maladie, / Il [the people] chantoit tout l’opera : / Dame ! il n’sait plus qu’ce p’tit air-là : / Ca ira, ça ira... However, after the fall of Robespierre and the Thermidorian Reaction, these words roiled young Muscadins just as the previous ones had caused the Sansculottes to react. Since the performances were disrupted by such turbulent audiences, Beaumarchais entrusted La Rochelle, the actor who performed the role of Brid’Oison, with an alternative ending that could be recited en cas de bruit (in case of noise). This variant, which remained unpublished until recently, was a praise of freedom of speech and of the sang froid de la raison (the cold blood of reason) against the stratagème (wiles) of ideological cabals. (duc)

Online Since: 06/22/2017

According to Beethoven, this is his “most accomplished work.” It celebrates the consecration of his student and sponsor, Archduke Rudolph, as Archbishop of Olomouc (Olmütz) in 1818. This mass was begun in 1818; it was completed three years after the ceremony and was presented to the cardinal and archbishop on 19 March 1823. This mass in D major seeks to express and communicate, in the words of the composer himself, a state of mind, a religious Stimmung. It is written for a large orchestra and consists of five movements (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) The sections of the Gloria, imposed by the meaning of the text, constitute a sonata: allegro in D major, Gratias in B flat and back to the allegro; then the larghetto and as a third movement the allegro, Quoniam, the fugue In gloria Dei Patris, with a cyclical return to the theme of the Gloria in the principal tone. The music comments on the text: royal acclamation, heartfelt gratitude, divine omnipotence; then, in contrast: prayers, shouts and murmurs of the supplicants of this world (miserere nobis). Purchased at Sotheby’s, London, 4 February 1952.   (bib)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

Despite visible erasures, this is the completed version of this untitled text, which consists of six paragraphs on two leaves, bound in red Morocco leather. At the earliest it was written by Flaubert during his voyage to the Orient (1849-1851) with his friend Maxime du Camp, although it seems more likely to date from his return to France in 1851, the moment he dedicated his life to writing. Later know by the title Le Chant de la Courtisane, this prose poem in a humorous tone was not published by Flaubert himself. Nonetheless, it sums up his challenges as a writer: the work shows the author’s fascination with Oriental culture and landscape, which he hopes to to reproduce in a realistic manner. A journal of his voyage, which records his observations and sensations and directly feeds his fictional work. The vocabulary reveals a certain erudition and a concern for accuracy, procedures which herald Salammbô. This manuscript, from the collection of Paul Voute (who had published a facsimile thereof in 1928), was purchased by Martin Bodmer at the Blaizot bookstore. (exq)

Online Since: 06/22/2017

Mentioned in his correspondence by Flaubert as an explanatory chapter to Salammbô, this manuscript consists of 28 leaves, which are all numbered, except for the last one that contains notes regarding the gods. The manuscript is in a folder on which Flaubert noted the work’s title as well as a date, 1857, that corresponds with the beginning of the writing of Salammbô. This chapter, however, was written after 1857: it was actually conceived after an important documentation phase indispensable to the project and after a trip to Carthage. Upon his return in 1858, the writer worked on a chapter that would be “the topographical and picturesque description of the aforementioned city, with a portrayal of the people who inhabited it, including the traditional costume, government, religion, finances and commerce, etc." (Letter to J. Duplan, dated 1 July 1858). Despite a certain number of corrections and marginal additions, this is the completed version of the text, which ultimately was removed from the novel, even though information therefrom was scattered throughout the work. This chapter reveals the way the author works. He is distinguished by his encyclopedic erudition and his attention to detail, which shed light on the original challenges in the creation of Salammbô: that of reconstructing the then-lost city of Carthage. In November 1949, Martin Bodmer purchased this manuscript at the Blaizot bookstore. (exq)

Online Since: 06/22/2017

This famous poem, probably written on 6 September 1835, is part of the composite manuscript Les chants du crépuscule that was published in the same year. Hugo movingly denounces the condition of prostitutes: he actually invites the reader to sympathize with rather than despise the “fallen women”. This symbolic vocabulary, usually denoting moral depravity, is used here not to convey a fault, but to express the courage of women who long struggled against the inevitability of the burden of misery before succumbing to it. Far from a moralizing Manicheism, Hugo assigns faults generally attributed to these women also to “à toi, riche ! à ton or”, pointing a finger at the injustice of a social system lacking any distribution of wealth as well as “à nous”, each citizen whose regard is not charitable enough. This manuscript presents a slight variation of the printed text since it reads: “s’y retenir longtemps de leurs mains épuisées” instead of “s’y cramponner longtemps”. (giv)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

The sixteen verses making up this passage are the sixth and last part of the poem "Dans l'église de ***”, included in the composite manuscript Les chants du crépuscule of 1835. Several themes are interwoven in this poem, which contrasts the probity of a woman praying in the middle of an abandoned church with the city’s hedonists, nihilists hurling themselves "d'ivresses en ivresses”. Hugo surprises this pure soul in the midst of adversity, invoking the help of the Lord to save her from overwhelming sadness. In this last part (VI), the writer increases his Christian support (Votre âme qui bientôt fuira peut-être ailleurs / Vers les régions pures, / Et vous emportera plus loin que nos douleurs, Plus loin que nos murmures !) with an angelic and serene quatrain: Soyez comme l'oiseau, posé pour un instant / Sur des rameaux trop frêles, / Qui sent ployer la branche et qui chante pourtant, / Sachant qu'il a des ailes ! (giv)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

In this letter to his young partner William H. Herndon (1818-1891), who had remained in Chicago as head of their joint law office, Lincoln, who is about to lose his seat in Congress as a Representative of the Whig Party, offers a lesson in political philosophy. Exhausted by months of political battles against the Mexican-American War and hurt by "exceedingly painful" statements by his friend (whom he describes as "a laborious, studious young man"), the future American President presents his "so Lincolnian" advice: "The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting that any body wishes to hinder him." (duc)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

While Cardinal Richelieu was besieging La Rochelle by land and by sea from September 1627 on, the poet François de Malherbe, who was very close to the government, reported on the royal council’s decisions and orientation in order to appease the concerns of his Norman cousin. In Malherbe’s opinion, there is no cause for concern: the King of England is no more than a second-rate monarch, militarily not on a par with France and not able to support the Huguenots of La Rochelle. As to the threat posed by the Reformed, Malherbe judges them to be near the end: "la Huguenoterie court fortune par toute l’Europe d’estre voisine de sa fin." (duc)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

Following enlightenment philosophers, liberal thinkers - which include Mill - considered freedom of speech a fundamental human right. In this small autograph, with embossed monogram "JSM", consisting of three folios intended for dispatch, the philosopher copies a passage of his famous "On Liberty" from 1869, taken from chapter II: "Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion." Mill emphasizes that humankind no more has the right to silence a single opinion than it has the right to silence all of humankind, if it had the power to do so. Before it became the property of Martin Bodmer, this letter had been purchased by the author Stefan Zweig in 1923. (giv)

Online Since: 06/22/2017

This autograph by Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) contains a fragment of a poem. Written on the recto side of a page are three sections numbered with Roman numerals from II to IV and, with the exception of the last one (IV), titled. Although the text is written in prose, the designation “sonnet” (II) could be due to the form of the excerpt in question, which is presented in 14 lines. The first section contains the sign +, which is difficult to interpret and which gives the impression that Rimbaud had planned to rework it. The numbering suggests that these three sections form a homogeneous whole together with the section Dimanche (I, BNF manuscript), thus constituting the poem Jeunesse. One can see inscriptions by other hands from after 1886: the annotation Illuminations in the upper left corner deliberately refers to the collection of poems with that same title, which was originally published in 1886. The poem Jeunesse, which consists of four stanzas, was first published by Vanier in 1895, after the Poésies complètes, as a complement to the Illuminations. (exq)

Online Since: 09/26/2017

The Lettres écrites de la montagne are the last work that was published during Rousseau’s lifetime. For the first time, the philosopher becomes directly involved in the affairs of Geneva. Beyond fundamental proposals, the letters contain further developed thoughts on the spirit of the Reformation as well as a defense of the Contrat Social. Letter VII, where this page comes from, supports the right of representation when it comes to correcting abuses of the Small Council, and it recommends that citizens convened in the General Council reject all new elections of magistrates if these should insist upon overstepping the rights given them by the Constitution. The Lettres were censored in Geneva as well as in Paris. This document is from the collection of Ch. Vellay (purchased by Martin Bodmer in 1926) and contains a draft of two passages from the Lettres. The first of these was published in the original edition (Amsterdam, M. M. Rey, 1764), the second in the edition of the Œuvres complètes of the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade. (giv)

Online Since: 06/22/2017

This "paperolle" from the famous "Code Gonzague" (held in the Biblioteca Ariostea of Ferrara) is a working copy for a passage that was added to Tasso’s great work, completed the previous year. The poet had submitted his original work to various humanists and high-ranking scholars, and he took into consideration certain critiques and suggestions when editing his verses during the summer of 1576. Several stanzas were profoundly revised or even completely rewritten. Stanza 42 was one of the most reworked, to the point that Tasso had to paste this small strip of paper with the definitive version of the text into the manuscript. The text describes the attitude and thoughts of the Muslim princess Armide, who gets ready to harangue the caliph and his armies and incite them to fight to the death with the crusaders and thus to take revenge on the Christian hero Rinaldo, who had abandoned her. (duc)

Online Since: 06/22/2017

This register, consisting of 275 leaves, contains the coats of arms of the canons of the diocese of Basel, from the election of Bishop Christoph von Utenheim in 1502 to the last prince-bishop, Franz Xaver von Neveu in 1794. Over three centuries, painters added to these parchment sheets over 2,300 coats of arms in color. From 1682 on, complete family trees appeared, which proved that the church dignitaries had the requisite sixteen quarters of nobility (sixteen noble ancestors in the generation of the great-great-grandparents). (pic)

Online Since: 10/08/2020

This manuscript contains two dramas from the Upper Engadine Histoargia dalg arik huͦm et da lazarus, ff. 1a-18b, completed 1591, and La Histoargia da Joseph (…), ff. 19a-38b, to which the scribe Jacob or Jachiam Ger added the date 1593 several times. He continued his work with a copy of the drama La Histoargia da las dysch Æteds “history of the ten centuries“ (f. 40a-f. 42b), of which only the beginning has survived (verses 1-157). This is the oldest surviving text of the Histoargia dalg arik huͦm et da lazarus. (dar)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

This manuscript contains five dramas from the Upper Engadin [La histoargia dalg filg pertz] f. 1a-36a (the beginning is missing, only surviving textual witness); üna historgia da hechastus f. 36a-78b (only surviving textual witness); [La histoargia da Joseph], f. 79b-99a; Vna bela senchia historgia da questa sainchia duonna süsanna (…) f. 100a-136b (oldest manuscript of this text), VNA BELA HISTORGIA dauart la Mur dalg Cchiaualÿr valantin et Eaglantina filgia dalg Araig Papin, f. 137a-164a (only surviving textual witness); f. 164b fragment of a song: Baruns ludat ilg Signer (= Chiampell, Psalm 29). The scribe of this manuscript is Peder Traviers (in various forms). The dating of the individual parts is based on indications by the scribe, which are usually found at the end of the piece. (dar)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

This manuscript contains the translation into Romansh of “Jerusalemer Reise“ (Journey to Jerusalem) by the parish priest and later abbot of Disentis, Jacob Bundi (pp.1-122); this is the oldest of the about 25 manuscripts of this translation from 1701 known so far. Following an originally blank page, there is a page with a German alphabet (p. 124), then 88 paginated pages in German script with instructions on planting various plants. According to the end page (p. 212), this is a copy of a work that was “Getruckt zu Cölln / Bey Heinrich Netessem (= Nettesheim) / in Margarden gaßen Im/ Jahr 1601. Geschriben im Jahr 1719 / den 5. Martij / P.C. Berchter“. (dar)

Online Since: 03/22/2018

This codex can be dated to the 10th century; it contains the Musica enchiriadis (2-27), a 9th century music theory treatise which endeavors to develop a series of rules for polyphonic composition, as well as annotations to the commentary Scolica enchiriadis (27-45, 66-102). Dasian notation is used in order to graphically illustrate the music. For a long time, this treatise was attributed to the monk Hucbald, but today it is considered the work of an anonymous author. (ber)

Online Since: 03/22/2017

A 12th century manuscript (1170-1190), probably copied in Switzerland (Einsiedeln?) or in Austria. It contains the introduction In prima parte agitur (fol. 1r-7ra) and the Decretum by Gratian [Σ-group, cf. C. Wei, A Discussion and List of Manuscripts Belonging to the Σ-group (S-group)] (fol. 7ra-217va); an additio (from fol. 167vb to C.29: Adrianus papa Eberhardo Salzeburgensi archiepiscopo. 'Dignum est et a rationis... [JL 10445: 1154-59]); various excerpts of glosses (scraped on fol. 21a) and excerpta of the Summa by Rufinus (cf. R. Weigand, Die Glossen zum Dekret Gratians. Studien zu den frühen Glossen und Glossenkompositionen, Roma 1991, pp. 737-740); fragments of the Glossa Ordinaria by Bartholomaeus Brixiensis (France, middle of the 13th century) were copied onto the erasures on fol. 6va-9va. (mur)

Online Since: 03/22/2017

This manuscript, together with Cod. 247(379), 248(380) and 249(381), constitutes the four volumes of a collection of lives of the saints and passions of the martyrs, arranged according to the liturgical year. Without a doubt these four volumes were used in Einsiedeln, where most likely they also were produced. Each life is introduced with a large rubricated initial, and numerous glosses and maniculae by Heinrich von Ligerz were inserted along the margins. The original endpapers, now removed, left traces of a liturgical text with neumes on the inside of the cover and traces of an illuminated initial on the inside of the back cover. (ber)

Online Since: 03/22/2017

Boethius is the author of the two treatises preserved in this 10th century manuscript: De geometria (1-22) and De musica (23-145). The two texts are surrounded by numerous sketches and marginal as well as interlinear glosses. (ber)

Online Since: 03/22/2017