275

Pax Mundi

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Pax Mundi

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2014 Jul 16 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Remarkable archive of 30 AMSs penned by members of the French Academy, each on an off-white 11.5 x 16.5 sheet, consisting of their thoughts on the concept of peace for an anthology compiled by the World League of Peace under the supervision of George Dejean between 1925 and 1932. After assembling a collection of over 1,000 such manuscripts from a vast spectrum of world figures, including Albert Einstein, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Arthur Conan Doyle, the World League for Peace released a limited edition set of facsimile prints of these autograph manuscripts under the title Pax Mundi: livre d’or de la paix. This archive consists of the original manuscripts by the leading French scholars and literary figures of the period, nearly all of whom were members of the Académie française. Signers are: Cardinal Alfred-Henri-Marie Baudrillart, novelist Rene Bazin, philologist Joseph Bedier, novelist Pierre Benoit, playwright Henri Bernstein, novelist Louis Bertrand, poet Abel Bonnard, writer Henry Bordeaux, novelist Paul Bourget, theologian Henri Bremond, playwright Eugene Brieux, writer Andre Chevrillon, playwright Maurice Donnay, literary critic Rene Doumic, engineer and novelist Edouard Estaunie, author Claude Farrere, duke and historian Auguste-Armand de la Force, historian Georges Goyau, historian Gabriel Hanotaux, poet Edmond Haraucourt, historian Camille Jullian, historian Pierre de La Gorce, admiral Marie-Jean-Lucien Lacaze, dramatist Henri Lavedan, poet Charles Le Goffic, novelist Georges Lecomte, art historian Emile Male, historian Pierre de Nolhac, dramatist Georges de Porto-Riche, and novelist Marcel Prevost. Manuscripts are crisply penned in bold ink and in overall fine condition, with foxing to just two sheets. All are accompanied by full transcripts and translations which are available for review online at rrauction.com.

Some particularly interesting comments, translated and quoted in part, include:

Louis Bertrand: "How can one dare to speak of peace in view of the appalling barbarities which blanket three fourths of the planet and which indeed seem insurmountable?"

Henry Bordeaux: "Peace: it is, along with love, the most beautiful word in the language of men."

Camille Jullian: "May the glory of our homeland in the twentieth century be to proclaim the peace of France!"

Henri Lavedan: "What makes it so difficult to eliminate war and achieve peace is that the former is a 'human inevitability' and the latter a 'divine ideal.' Peace—God alone can grant it to men. But on condition that men want it."

Emile Male: "How strange that the horrible war to end all wars has not prevented blood from flowing in various parts of the world—in Syria, Morocco, Mexico, China…Are we to believe that war is the fate of human nature?—If this were so, there would be no hope for European civilization."