Our Notes & References

One of the “seminal works on the history of Novorossiia” (Polevshchykova), then a little-known region, written by a close friend of the Duke of Richelieu, the important governor of Odessa who organised and supervised its rapid development.

A fine copy of the first edition, with folding maps and sepia aquatint views. “Ouvrage curieux, orné de très belles vues” (Chadenat).

These views show Cossacks, some cities such as Odessa and Yourzouf, as well as natural sites, such as salt lakes and even the Caucasus. Engraved city plans (incl. of Odessa) and two folded maps of Ukraine add to the extensive information included in the work. Castelnau not only drafts the entire history of the region, focusing in particular on Odessa, he also details the local trade and productions, giving “valuable information on statistics and trade” (Polevshchykova in Mézin & Rjéoutski). He inserted a wealth of citations from ancient and contemporary historians, including valuable material not available elsewhere.

Novorossiia, ie. ‘New Russia’, was Catherine the Great’s answer to the imperial acquisitions of Western Europe (New England, New France, etc.). As Sunderland writes, the “adoption of the name of New Russia was in fact the most powerful statement imaginable of Russia’s national coming of age.” It referred to the part of Ukraine immediately north of Crimea and the Black Sea, and became an official toponym in 1764, after Russia’s defeat of the Crimean Khanate.

It is where the French aristocrat Castelnau (1757-1826) retired in the early 1800s after his St. Petersburg stay (where he was a librettist and, some say, close to Tsar Paul I), following his exile from revolutionary France. He went there with his friend and fellow exiled, Armand Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu, who became governor of Odessa, the main city, and then of the entire province. The Duke commissioned Castelnau to write his history, which took him several years.

With the royalist Bourbon Restoration, both men went back to France: Richelieu became Prime Minister and Castelnau published his three volumes, “undoubtedly his greatest literary achievement” (Polevshchykova in Mézin & Rjéoutski).

Naturally praising the development of the region under Russian (and monarchic) rule, the work was well received; Tsar Alexander I accepted to be the dedicatee and rewarded Castelnau for his book.

Interestingly, Byron owned a copy and used it as a source for Canto 7 of Don Juan (in which his attitude to Castelnau’s glorification of Russian expansionism is made quite clear). A second edition appeared in 1827.

Provenance

M. de Kostine (armorial booklabel to upper fly-leaves); Prof. Philip Longworth (1933-2021, historian and writer, esp. on Russian history).

Bibliography

Cat. Russica C-182; Chadenat 1273; McGann, J. J. “The Book of Byron and the Book of a World,” in The Beauty of Inflections: Literary Investigations in Historical Method and Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001; Polevshchykova, E. “Un Bazadais à Odessa, Gabriel de Castelnau d’Auros,” Les Cahiers du Bazadais, no. 141 (2e trimester 2003), pp. 5-14; Polevshchykova in Mézin & Rjéoutski, Les Français en Russie au siècle des Lumières, II, 150-152; Sunderland, W. Taming the Wild Field: Colonization and Empire on the Russian Steppe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.