MATISSE (Henri) - GUILLERAGUES (Gabriel-Joseph de Lavergne, vicomte de). Letters [from] Marianna Alcaforado, original lithographs by Henri Matisse. Paris, Tériade, 1946. In-4° mounted on tabs (270 x 220 mm). Jansenist aubergine morocco, edge-to-edge lining and light grey box endpapers, gilt edges on witnesses, cover and spine, folder, slipcase (P.-L. Martin). 102 original lithographs by Matisse: 15 full-page portraits of nuns, printed in brown (including the frontispiece), various ornaments of fruit and flowers printed in violet (including 2 for the cover, 5 full-page, culs-de-lampe), initials. As soon as they were published in 1669, "the success of the Lettres portugaises was linked to the enigma they posed. Were they the spontaneous fruit of the despair of a Portuguese nun abandoned by the French officer who had seduced her, or the work of a French writer" (Deloffre, 1991). The epistolary novel by Guilleragues (1628-1685) was not definitively attributed to its author until the second half of the twentieth century. So it was under the assumed name of the nun, Mariana Alcaforado, that Matisse, seduced by "the thrilling sensibility that pours forth in the famous Letters", decided to give his version (Duthuit). "Louis Aragon learned that Matisse had been spending sleepless nights creating a new alphabet that would harmonize with the ornaments. At the age of seventy-six he was an old man in love with letters: "I know what a J is like now," he told Aragon, "and an A, the A is difficult..." Instead of the attenuated pen-drawn initials in Visages, these were made with the same broad crayon strokes he used for the ornaments and in similarly robust proportions [...] The Lettres portugaises should be recognised as one of Matisse's main typographical achievements and a significant step in his illustration career" (John Bidwell, Graphic passion, Matisse and the book arts, New York, The Morgan library & museum, 2015, n°27). Edition of 270 copies on Arches vellum signed by Matisse, this one n°207. A copy of Alexandre Loewy (his bookplate), in a strict Jansenist "Grand Siècle" binding by Pierre-Lucien Martin (Alexandre Loewy, un libraire dans son siècle, sale 30 March 1996, no. 3). Duthuit 15; Rauch, Les Peintres et le livre, 1867-1957, p. 189, n°170; The Artist and the Book, 1860-1960, n°199; Hommage à Tériade, p. 124; Monod 1992, n°145. Corners of slipcase and spine of dust jacket rubbed.