Our Notes & References

A very rare French-Russian dictionary, elegantly printed at the French “Royal” press in 1815, the year of Napoleon’s demise. We could not trace any copy at auction in recent decades, including in France, where apparently the only example in a public library is in the BnF.

With fine and appropriate provenance: the exquisite copy of the French Ambassador to Russia Prosper de Barante (1782-1866).

In the preface, the author describes it as a dictionary of the most common words for Russian-French conversations to facilitate the communication between the two nations and to help both learn each other’s language. Briefly explaining the rules of reading Russian alphabet at the beginning, the dictionary is divided into three parts for nouns, adjectives and verbs in French alphabetic order, followed by almost ten pages of comparative tables of French and Russian currencies and measures of weight and distance.

The largest part introducing Russian nouns shows a curious selection of the “most common conversational” words, divided into thematic groups, which surprisingly start with accidents and illnesses, then vices and virtues, animals, food, military terms among many others. Interestingly, some of the words are presented in their diminutive forms or sometimes with a few minor mistakes, showing that the author might have briefly heard some of the words and wrote them down as he thought they would be spelled.

With an elegant Russian type, including cursive for some titles, the dictionary was printed at the royal presses (imprimerie royale) for Louis Théophile Barrois (1780-1855), a bookdealer, specialising on works in foreign languages, including exotic ones, such as Persian and even Sanskrit. “The name of Barrois has always been associated with the Parisian trade in foreign literature. His bookshop’s fame increased over the years and it was, by the turn of the nineteenth century, one of the best-stocked outlets of foreign literature, particularly English, German, and Spanish” (Nicolás Bas Martín, Spanish Books in the Europe of the Enlightenment, Boston, 2018).

Interestingly, the publication took place just a few years after Napoleon’s invasion to Russia in 1812. It is most likely it was printed either before April or after June 1815 when Napoleon was ultimately defeated at the battle of Waterloo. From April to June 1815, Napoleon reclaimed power in France and the royal press was named impériale.

A year later, Hamoniere published a book of Russian-French dialogues at the same press for Barrois.

Provenance

Bibliotheque de M de Barante (shelf labels to upper and lower pastedowns) – one of the largest private collections in France, built up during more than three centuries by successive generations of the Brugieres family, located at the Château de Barante in France. Among the collection’s owners was Prosper de Barante who enriched the family library with numerous works related to his long career as a man of letters, politician, historian and diplomat who maintained close relations with Benjamin Constant, Madame Récamier and Madame de Staël.

Bibliography

Diana Cooper-Richet, Littérature étrangère et monde du livre, à Paris, au XIX° siècle, 2004 (online); Cat. Russica H-139.