Stéphane MALLARMÉ. Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. Lecture. Paris, Librairie de L'Art Indépendant, MDCCCLXXX[X] [MDCCCXC]; booklet in-8, plum half-chagr, ribbed spine decorated with gilt fleurons, untrimmed, yellow cover (contemporary binding). After its partial publication in L'Art moderne bruxellois, the lecture was published in extenso in La Revue d'aujourd'hui (May 15, 1890) by editor Rodolphe Darzens, who had been very close to the poet since Villiers' illness and death. May 28 to Darzens: "Adresser tout, mais cela se limite à peu de chose jusqu'aujourd'hui, épreuves du tirage à part" (Marchal Corr. 1351). Copy N° [printed, with addition in pencil:] "d'épreuves" by Léon Bailly the publisher, who has initialed. One of the few, if not the only known set of proofs, bearing the wet stamps of "L'Imprimerie / La Sté de Typographie [=Noizette] / Par Procédés rapides/ Épreuve 8 juil 90/rue Campagne-Première 8/ Paris". Uncorrected, it is nevertheless of some interest. "The composition of the text for La Revue d'aujourd'hui was also used, with slightly more generous line spacing, to produce the fifty booklets under the Librairie de l'Art indépendant banner that make up the original edition, at the same printer (Noizette). However, the text of the booklet and that of the review are not strictly identical, Mallarmé having corrected a few words in addition to the typos" (Marchal OC. II p. 1581). Printing of an unknown state with changes. This seems contradictory, since the offprint stricto sensu is based on the same type composition, with the only change being the pagination reset to zero and the addition of printed f.-t., title and cover. Here, the title page and f.-t. (justif. on verso) are newly composed and even modified between the proof and the edition: Conference will become larger, address added and year corrected in other Roman characters. The yellow cover, now green, will no longer have the price on the 2nd plate, the address will be added and the year in Roman numerals modified. The Noizette printing house, while keeping its typos, modifies its page layout and the justification of certain lines if there are corrections. For example, on p. 13, a change of 2 lines: - Revue d'aujourd'hui: "moin-/dre gêne chez quelqu'un et insinué, pour en distraire le trouble/momentané, une diversion", everything is shifted by the deletion of "momentané" in the proof to the point of forgetting the hyphen of moin by mistake (will be corrected). - At the end of § (Revue): "Le prix est fixé, de tout temps, c'est" répondit le gentilhomme, "c'est trente deniers" is corrected in the proof to: "Le prix est déjà fait c'est" répondit le gentilhomme, c'est trente deniers", forgetting the quotation mark which will be erroneously inverted in the plate. Further down, science at the end of the § is capitalized in the proof.... There was certainly an additional corrected set, as a fatal layout error caused a 5-line block to be moved to the top of p. 26 instead of 25... Provenance: Dr. Lucien-Graux, 3rd part, Drouot, 20/3/1957 no. 88 (bookplate). - Sickles VII, 15/3/1991 n° 2833. Also included: - Stéphane Mallarmé. Les Miens I Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. With a portrait by Marcellin Desboutin. Bruxelles, Lacomblez, (August 31) 1892; small square in-12 br. Complete definitive edition of the conference, printed in 600 copies. One of 565 on "fort vélin teinté, with portrait in black" says the justif. whereas the beautiful etching of Villiers' portrait is still in sanguine. We described the copper in L'Art et l'Idée, 26/10/1992, no. 114 (sold to Tamura-Shoten, Tokyo). -- Léonce de Larmandie. L.a.s. to Mallarmé in very pale green ink (1f. in-4 on fine paper headed Rosae Crucis Templi Ordo/ Geste Esthétique dite: Salon & Soirées de la Rose-Croix [same paper Austin VIII p. 340], with envelope addressed to 89 rue de Rome, postmarked 30/12/92). Only known unpublished personal letter, following the publication of Villiers. Larmandie read it by chance and wishes, however presumptuously, to be part of the announced Les Miens series.