Vente Bibliotheque Imperiale de Dominique de Villepin (2008)
 
IMPERIAL LIBRARY of Dominique de VILLEPIN. Wednesday March 19, 2008. Pierre BERGE & Associates. Hotel-Drouot. Expert: Benoît Forgeot.
 
The passion for the Empire has accompanied me since childhood. Born from the reading of the Memorial, it was nourished by the numerous witnesses of the epic and the sums published by these great history writers whose names are Norvins, Thiers, Taine or Louis Madelin. Behind the illuminations of the Court and the splendor of glory, I felt very early the tragedy of a power condemned to headlong flight by the legacy of the Revolution and the hostility of Europe. It is this conviction, reinforced as I read and then by my own political experience, which pushed me to revisit the destiny of Napoleon from the angle of his fall and to publish the fruit of my reflections through The Black Sun of Power (2007), The Fall or the Impossible Empire (to be published in 2008),
 
This library reflects a thirty-year quest, this long journey accomplished through discoveries, favorites and surprises . The authenticity of the autograph rubs shoulders with the brilliance of the almanac as well as the contradictory truths of witnesses and historians. The whole marks so many encounters and constitutes a collection which has attempted to combine erudition and bibliophily. Each of these works, read and reread, visited and revisited, accompanied me with the humility, emotion and curiosity of someone who wants to understand.
 
I am parting with it today without nostalgia. The upcoming publication of two volumes on the end of the Empire and Saint Helena closes my political exploration of the Napoleonic epic. More broadly, I feel the need to lighten up, to relax at the dawn of a new stage in my life. I do it with all the more freedom because my books, my companions, will continue to travel into other hands who, I am sure, will collect them with as much happiness and respect as I do. Every bibliophile likes the eternity of the book to extend the ephemeral nature of his collection.
 
-Dominique de VILLEPIN
 
An amazing collection showcased in colour photographs from Dominique de Villeppin, who is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007 under President Jacques Chirac.
 
Soft Cover
226 pages
In Good Condition