"The Collection of a Librarian". A selection of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Maps Sale (Part II) #523/2023

French writer Xavier de Maistre, the younger brother of the much better-known Joseph de Maistre, for whom he is often mistaken, published in 1794 a book exploring the self under the pretext of a ‘Trip around His Room’. This auction urges us to follow de Maistre’s example and to start on a journey, this time through the pieces of a library, around a printed, imprinted, and edited universe. Rare books, novel photographs, original documents, engravings, and collectible maps, they all urge us to discover them and to bring them back into our own universe which will thus be enriched. Even though all these speak to us about the past, we can transform them into pieces if the present and, at the same time, we can preserve them for the future. We also have a powerful example of this at hand. The rare and valuable engraving with the portrait of Vlad Țepeș brings to our attention an iconic piece, not only for a historical figure, but also for the way history is interpreted and reinterpreted very differently today.