Philippe PETAIN (1856-1951) - Lot 1

Philippe PETAIN (1856-1951) The World War (1914-1918) Unique autograph manuscript. Important detailed account of the First World War, containing 351 folio pages, handwritten and illustrated, bound in an in-4 volume (313 x 200 mm). Brown half-percaline, gilt title on spine. The text of the manuscript is divided into 47 chapters illustrated with 77 ink sketches by Philippe Pétain. These remarkable battle sketches are enhanced with blue and red colored pencil. Precise and exhaustive, the chronicle of the "World War 1914-1918" ends with the "List of Peace Treaties" (p. 337), a remarkable and surprisingly modern "Chronological and correlative table of operations on the various fronts" (p. 325-335), a list of abbreviations (p. 329), a table of contents and a table of sketches. The manuscript is undated and unsigned. Dimensions 21x35 cm (Hinges cracked and restored, corners and edges dulled, title page restored with scotch tape. Reproduction of Marcel Baschet's portrait of Pétain pasted at the end of the volume). This manuscript was published by Privat in 2014. The rights to this work will be given to the purchaser. Provenance: private collection since around 1945, then, by descent in 1989, to the current owner, who identified it in 2006. Over the past fifteen years, this historic piece has been the subject of a bitter legal battle that has made it the focus of much media attention. The originality of this manuscript has been absolutely reinforced by the numerous studies and analyses that have been produced in support of its authenticity. Copies of these will be given to the buyer. "No work from this period, not even Henry Bidou's Histoire d'Ernest Lavisse, is as accurate" (Marc Ferro - Preface p 13). The text of the manuscript is divided into 47 chapters, illustrated with 77 ink sketches by Philippe Pétain, Marshal of France and Head of the French State from 1940 to 1944. These remarkable battle sketches are enhanced with blue and red colored pencil, a technique long adopted by the general staff. Precise and exhaustive, the "World War 1914-1918" chronicle ends with the "List of Peace Treaties" (p. 337), a remarkable and surprisingly modern "Chronological and correlative table of operations on the various fronts" (p. 325-335), a list of abbreviations (p. 329), a table of contents and a table of sketches. The manuscript is undated and unsigned. Over the past fifteen years, this historic work has been the subject of a bitter legal battle that has made it the focus of much media attention. The originality of this manuscript has been absolutely reinforced by the numerous studies and analyses that have been produced in support of its authenticity. Copies of these will be given to the buyer. This manuscript was published by Privat in 2014. The rights to this work will be given to the buyer. Prior to the revelation of this manuscript, first to institutions in 2010 and then to the general public in 2014, some specialists claimed that Pétain had never given a written account of his overall vision of the Great War. It is also well known that the Marshal did not want to write his memoirs ("because one always flatters oneself in them", he used to say). When the war was over, some of the great commanders frequented literary circles and harbored ambitions of being elected to the French Academy. Foch was elected to the French Academy in 1918, and when he died in 1929, chair 18 was awarded to Pétain. In the years that preceded, the Marshal's interest in literature had grown to the point where an ambitious project was born: the writing of a history of the Soldier through the ages. Since the revelation of Colonel Répington's testimony of June 9, 1919, we now know that work on the manuscript began as early as the beginning of 1919 and was necessarily completed after the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres (November 20, 1920) and before the treaties of Lausanne (1923) and Locarno (1925). List of Peace Treaties" cited by the author (p. 337). Marshal Pétain did not write a book about the Great War; he chose to chronicle it. Returning to his pedagogical reflexes, he offers us a very complete and clear course on the global conflict as a whole. It is certain that his manuscript, a veritable bank of historical data, served as the basis for the Marshal's project "The Soldier through the Ages", which was to be co-written by Pétain and de Gaulle. Convinced by the literary talents of Commandant Charles