Memoire de Contemporains, pour server a l'histoire de France, et Principalement a celle de la Republique et de l'empire [tr. Memory of his contemporaries as to the history of France, mainly in the Republic and Empire]

Paris: Bossange Freres, 1824. 3/4 leather. Very Good +. 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches. 458 pages with foldout map of the Campaign of 1814. Pages clean with no staining, soiling or marking. Scattered light foxing. Title page bears the neat contemporary inscription in blue ink as follows: "[To] Baron von Neumann [From] Lady Georgiana Codrington." All page edges speckled rouge. Bound in 3/4 brown leather with marbled boards. Hinges starting, and boards with light wear. Fain was the secretary to Napoleon from 1806 to 1814, and his works are considered of primary historical importance - a "source de tout premier ordre pour l'histoire de l'Empire. This copy belonged to the family of the Duke of Wellington's aides-de-camp at the time of his Iberian campaign and the Battle of Waterloo. The giver of the book is Lady Georgiana Charlotte Anne Somerset (1817-1884), the second daughter of Major Henry Somerset, seventh Duke of Beaufort (1792-1853), and aide-de-camp to Sir Arthur Wellesley, the (future) Duke of Wellington in Portugal and Spain between 1812 and 1814. In this endeavor, he followed family tradition, as Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, the eighth son of the fifth duke of Beaufort (and a contemporary), was also aide-de-camp to Wellesley, and accompanied him throughout his campaigns in the Iberian Peninsula (1808-1814), including Waterloo. In 1854, the latter Somerset (now titled Baron Raglan), was given command of British forces in the war against Russia, and gave the orders leading to the infamous "Charge of the Light Brigade" at Balaclava on 25 October 1854. The recipient of the book is Philipp von Neumann, an illustrious Austrian diplomat who served as charge d'affaires at the Austrian embassy in London in the early 1810s. He married the Duke's eldest daughter (Lady Georgiana's sister) in 1844. Neumann took part in negotiations between Portugal and Brazil, as a result of which King John VI of Portugal and his son Emperor Pedro I of Brazil were reconciled. Neumann also conducted the Treaty of Commerce between Austria and Great Britain. In recognition of his services he was created a Baron by the Emperor Francis I of Austria, made Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary for Austria to the Court of St James, and was appointed Austrian minister in Florence and in Brussels.