BALLANCHE Pierre-Simon L’Homme sans nom.

Brunet, I, 627 ; Vicaire, I, 170 ; not in Carteret.

First edition, rare. Printed in only 100 copies on wove paper for private distribution.

The mystical writer Pierre Simon Ballanche (1776-1847), son of one of the most important printers in Lyon at the time, followed Madame Récamier to Paris. A close friend of Chateaubriand, he became one of the most important figures in the Abbaye-aux-Bois cenacle. He is the author of a number of works that are linked to a single thought in which he develops the history of the destinies of the human race. L'homme sans nom, one of his most curious books, features the confession of an old regicide and his hallucinatory evocation of the trial and final moments of Louis XVI. Ballanche expounds some singular theosophical and expiatory theories, but the work is also a vigorous indictment of the death penalty.

A very fine copy in the original wrappers and uncut as issued; some occasional foxing.