France, the state acquires the most important manuscript of the Marquis de Sade

It is the most important extant manuscript of the Marquis de S ade (Donatien-Alphonse-François de Sade; Paris, 1740 - Charenton-Saint-Maurice, 1814), and was long thought to be lost: it is the first draft of the novel The Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom, a work with an extraordinary history. The divine Marquis had written this masterpiece in 1785, while imprisoned in the Bastille prison, and the object itself is unique: it is in fact a 12-meter-long roll, composed of 33 glued sheets, 11.3 centimeters wide. Sade was transferred from the Bastille on July 4, 1789, just ten days before the outbreak of the French Revolution, and following the transfer he instructed his wife, Renée-Pélagie, to collect his belongings from the cell, including the manuscript: his consort, however, did not remember until July 14, and the marquis lost his items, believing that the manuscript itself had been lost.

It was recovered only many years later, in 1904, by psychiatrist Iwan Bloch, who printed it, believing it to be an outstanding document from a scientific point of view as well, given the descriptions in the novel of many cases of psychiatric interest. Purchased in 1929 by Viscount Charles de Noailles, it was reprinted in the 1930s, without the translation errors of Bloch’s published version. Then purchased in 1982 by collector Gérard Nordmann, it was then bought again, for 7 million euros, in 2014 by entrepreneur Gérard Lhéritier. After Lhéritier’s company went into liquidation, in 2017 the manuscript was declared a “national treasure” (the homologue of our cultural interest restriction) and later returned to the market: 4.55 million euros were needed to secure it, and the French state, earlier this year, launched an appeal, through the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, to find patrons willing to match the sum.

The appeal finally hit the mark: responding was banker Emmanuel Boussard, founder of the Boussard & Gavaudan investment fund, who put up the full amount needed to perfect the purchase. Boussard’s grandfather was conservator, between 1943 and 1964, of the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, and so, the French Ministry of Culture explained, the businessman wanted to show his attachment to the institution.

In addition to the marquis’ manuscript, the state also acquired some autograph manuscripts by André Breton, including the two Manifestos of Surrealism. All works now become part of the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The manuscript of The Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom (a book that has inspired numerous authors, from Breton himself to George Bataille, through Annie Le Brun to the very famous film by Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was inspired by the story told by the marquis but set it in the days of the Republic of Salò) will be presented at a conference in 2022, in the presence of specialists and intellectuals, with the aim of analyzing the figure of Sade, the reception of his work over the centuries and its significance today.

“This exceptional enrichment of the national collections,” the French Ministry of Culture announced, “is one of the most important in recent years for the BnF. The Ministry of Culture and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France thank the patrons who contributed to the realization of these acquisitions.”

France, the state acquires the most important manuscript of the Marquis de Sade

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