Description
Henri Masers de LATUDE (1725-1805) adventurer, imprisoned for his machinations against Madame de Pompadour, he spent 35 years in prison despite his spectacular escapes. Manuscript, Memoir of Mr (Henri) Delatude, engineer. His detention in the Bastille and in the dungeon of Vincennes, 1782; notebook in-4 of 36 ff. First version of Latude's memoirs, very different from the 1790 publication. It is a copy of the memoir transmitted by Mrs. Legros to President de Gourgues who, moved by Latude's fate, was then able to obtain from Louis XVI his release. This copy, of a neat and very readable writing, was perhaps intended for the impression, the title page having been very corrected. We indicate in square brackets the crossed-out words, and in italics the corrections. Mémoire [du Sr Henri Masers] de Mr de Latude, Ingénieur, [au sujet] prisonnier à la Bastille, contenant le détail des opérations qu'il a mises en usage pour s'échapper [trois fois, une fois de la Bastille] une fois de cette forteresse, et deux fois du donjon de Vincennes [et la suite de cet événement] / [No one can avoid his unfortunate fate by wanting to flee from it, one falls back into it]. 1° "Sic omniafatis in pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsareferri" 2° "Ex iterumcrudelia retro fatavocant". [In your last letter you inform me that at the only account of my misfortunes a virtuous person and of great distinction let herself be affected by a tender pity for me, and that she wishes to have a description] You inform me, Sir, by your dère letter, that people distinguished by their merit and quality were moved with pity at the account of my misfortunes, and that they showed you a strong desire to have from myself the exact [well] and detailed relation [of my escape] as well as my escape from the Bastille [and] as those of the dungeon of Vincennes"... Latude recounts here in detail his escapes and their aftermath, the account beginning in September 1749, when he was transferred from the Bastille to Vincennes. He evokes his conditions of detention, which will go in worsening, because of the vindictiveness of Mrs de Pompadour.Enclosed is a period copy of a letter from the Contrôleur général Calonne to the maréchale de Beauvau, May 12, 1786, concerning a relief paid to Mme Legros who sacrificed herself to rescue Latude (note from the collector Villenave); and the minute of a letter from Palloy to Latude after the reading of his Mémoires, and sending him "a plan of this horrible Bastille" (January 26, 1791; with an old copy of Latude's answer, February 6, 1791.
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Henri Masers de LATUDE (1725-1805) adventurer, imprisoned for his machinations against Madame de Pompadour, he spent 35 years in prison despite his spectacular escapes. Manuscript, Memoir of Mr (Henri) Delatude, engineer. His detention in the Bastille and in the dungeon of Vincennes, 1782; notebook in-4 of 36 ff. First version of Latude's memoirs, very different from the 1790 publication. It is a copy of the memoir transmitted by Mrs. Legros to President de Gourgues who, moved by Latude's fate, was then able to obtain from Louis XVI his release. This copy, of a neat and very readable writing, was perhaps intended for the impression, the title page having been very corrected. We indicate in square brackets the crossed-out words, and in italics the corrections. Mémoire [du Sr Henri Masers] de Mr de Latude, Ingénieur, [au sujet] prisonnier à la Bastille, contenant le détail des opérations qu'il a mises en usage pour s'échapper [trois fois, une fois de la Bastille] une fois de cette forteresse, et deux fois du donjon de Vincennes [et la suite de cet événement] / [No one can avoid his unfortunate fate by wanting to flee from it, one falls back into it]. 1° "Sic omniafatis in pejus ruere, ac retro sublapsareferri" 2° "Ex iterumcrudelia retro fatavocant". [In your last letter you inform me that at the only account of my misfortunes a virtuous person and of great distinction let herself be affected by a tender pity for me, and that she wishes to have a description] You inform me, Sir, by your dère letter, that people distinguished by their merit and quality were moved with pity at the account of my misfortunes, and that they showed you a strong desire to have from myself the exact [well] and detailed relation [of my escape] as well as my escape from the Bastille [and] as those of the dungeon of Vincennes"... Latude recounts here in detail his escapes and their aftermath, the account beginning in September 1749, when he was transferred from the Bastille to Vincennes. He evokes his conditions of detention, which will go in worsening, because of the vindictiveness of Mrs de Pompadour.Enclosed is a period copy of a letter from the Contrôleur général Calonne to the maréchale de Beauvau, May 12, 1786, concerning a relief paid to Mme Legros who sacrificed herself to rescue Latude (note from the collector Villenave); and the minute of a letter from Palloy to Latude after the reading of his Mémoires, and sending him "a plan of this horrible Bastille" (January 26, 1791; with an old copy of Latude's answer, February 6, 1791.
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