Mining Library Treasures

In the Special Collection of the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome lies a small treasure. It is a small gold leafed book bound in calf leather, decorated with gold flowers (see fig. 1 and 2).This book is entitled Souvenirs d’Italie, par un catholique [1838]. It contains 76 letters, which have been written between October 16, 1833 and July 24, 1834. These letters report about a pilgrimage to Italy (see fig. 3).

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One book, two authors?

According to the catalogue of the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome, the author of Souvenirs d’Italie is Philippe-Ernst de Beauffort . However, the information on the blue etiquette (see fig. 4), which is used to find the books without taking them from the shelves (like other libraries would use stickers on the spines of their books) contests the catalogue information.According to the etiquette, the author of Souvenirs d’Italie is not Philippe-Ernst, but Louis Leopold Amédée de Beauffort. This information is repeated on a small note that is glued inside the fly leaf of the book.

The title-page of the copy owned by the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome  does not name an author at all. Title-pages of later editions only mention Marquis de Beauffort. A search through other library catalogues yielded contrary information: both Philippe-Ernst as well as Louis Leopold Amédée are mentioned as the author of Souvenirs d’Italie; sometimes even within the same catalogue. According to Janet Mente, librarian at the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome she also came across the problem of identifying the author. She contributed Souvenirs d’Italie to Louis Leopold Amédée on the blue etiquette because he was mentioned as the author in most of the catalogues. This makes the question of authorship intriguing.

Philippe-Ernst de Beauffort (1782 – 1858) is the father of Louis Leopold Amédée de Beauffort (1804 – 1854). At the start of the pilgrimage described in the letters Philippe-Ernst would have been 51 years old, while Louis Leopold Amédée would have been 29. So both father and son were mature and of an age that they would have been physically capable of undertaking this challenging pilgrimage.

Louis Leopold Amédée studied law and later became the director of a Royal Museum of art and history. Between 1830 and 1848, he was the major of Wemmel, in Belgium. He was a boardmember of the Royal Library of Belgium (1837 – 1858) and was a member in the Commission Royale des Monuments (1836 – 1858). Philippe-Ernst is the author of the book De salut de la France, par un ancien officier de la maison du Roi, that has been published in 1815. However, on the title-page of this book, there is no name of the author mentioned as well. Louis Leopold Amédée’s profession as major does not make it very likely that he could take a depart from his duties in Wemmel for about ten months to undertake a pilgrimage, while Philippe-Ernst, already a published author, would mean a continuing logical line if he is also the writer of Souvenirs d’Italie.

A different argument to contribute the authorship to Philippe-Ernst can be found in the contents of the book. Marquis de Beauffort addresses many of his letters to Alfred, Louise and Charles, to which he refers to a couple of times with mon (my). This indicates a possible family bond. Philippe-Ernst had five children, amongst them Alfred and Charles. He did not have a daughter named Louisa however, but he did have a son called Louis. The marquis even points out certain familiar connections. He refers to Louisa as his daughter, tells her to let her brother read his letters and mentions his children in letters addressed to other people. While the deviation in name and gender of Louisa/Louis is peculiar, none of the children of Louis Leopold Amédée bears a name resemblance to the addressees by the marquis. Even though the deviation in this Louis’ name is remarkable, the marquis who wrote Souvernirs d’Italie has more in common with Philippe-Ernst than he had with Louis Leopold Amédée.

Finally even the title marquis is an argument to contribute this book to Philippe-Ernst. From 1830 onward, King Willem I (1772 – 1843) gives certain families royal titles. He did so with the Beauffort family, because they were an old royal family. The title marquis can only be inherited by the first born, while the title count can be inherited by all children who bear the name. Philippe-Ernst Beauffort bears the title marquise, while Louis Leopold Amédée Beauffort, the second son in line, bears the title count. Since Louis Leopold Amédée lacks the title of marquis, it is impossible for him to be the marquis de Beauffort who wrote Souvenirs d’Italie.

Even though further research is needed to give a definitive answer to the question of authorship of Souvenirs d’Italie, it seems the most probable that Philippe-Ernst was the author. Firstly, because he published before, while Louise Leopold Amédee’s profession as major does not make it probable that he was able to leave his citizens for the amount of time this pilgrimage took. Secondly, there is the name resemblance between the marquis’ children and the children of Philippe-Ernst and finally, because Philippe-Ernst bore the title of marquise that was not inherited by his second son.

Publisher/printer

The version of Souvenirs d’Italie at the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome library is published in Brussels in 1838 at Méline. A year later two publishers coproduce one version for both France and Belgium. This version is published by La société des Beaux-arts in Brussels. At the same time, this is also printed for L. Lefort the French publisher in Lille. This version contains a note by both publishers stating that there were two earlier French and two earlier Belgian publications pre-date this 5th publication which dates 1939. This leads to the conclusion that the book in the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome special collection must be either first or second printing.

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Illustration

The edition of Souvenirs d’Italie in the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome Special Collection contains one illustration (see fig. 5). It depicts a woman playing harp on a cloud through which a church roof is just visible. The illustration is an etching designed by Fanny Geefs and performed by Erin Corr. Fanny, born as Isabelle Marie Françoise Corr, is Erin’s sister. Both are of Irish origin and lived in Belgium. Fanny Geefs worked there for the Belgic royal family.

Translations

Souvenirs d’Italie is translated to Italian by Ignazio Cantù. The Italian title is Un pellegrinaggio in Italia

(a pilgrimage to Italy). In the Netherlands, this book is published in 1842 under the title Herinneringen uit Italië [Accessed 25 Nov. 2017 ] (memories of Italy), translated by Mr. G.J.F Ter Horst.

In 2014 Souvenirs d’Italie is republished by Hachette Livre, with the help of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. They used an edition dated 1886.