STENDHAL. History of painting in Italy. Paris, Didot l'aîné, 1817. 2 volumes in-8, half-basane, smooth spines decorated with gilt foliage, marbled edges (period binding). First edition. It took almost ten months to print these two volumes, the leaves of which, printed as they went along, were teeming with printing errors and were corrected by means of some twenty inserts and lengthy errata. The copy does contain the two main cartons mentioned by Cordier, on pp. 212 bis-ter of the first volume and pp. 21-24 of the second, as well as the 3 errata pages (bound at the end of the volumes). The epigraph to the first volume is six verses from Monti's Manfredi, and the second, Stendhal's famous dedication To the happy few. The dedication leaf was removed before publication, as in almost all copies. One of the extremely rare copies with the author's name printed in full on the title page: Par M. Beyle, ex-auditeur au Conseil d'État, instead of the abbreviation: Par M.B.A.A. found in almost all copies. Only a handful of copies are known to bear Beyle's name, and these are the only volumes of his work published during his lifetime to have borne their author's real name. L'Histoire de la peinture en Italie was not the first work published by Stendhal, but it was the first he undertook, starting work on it in 1811. He spent six years working on it, with interruptions - he lost his first manuscript during the Russian campaign. Devoted exclusively to the Florence school, although the initial plan was much broader, this history of Italian painting is structured around alternating narratives and theoretical essays, strung together in a conversational tone, with digressions, comparisons and peremptory judgements, based on a small number of highly researched examples. Published at his own expense, the work met with no success and even hindered the author's diplomatic career. Stendhal's autograph address: To Count Kosakowsky, Secretary of the Russian Legation in Rome. This dedication is repeated on the mastheads of both volumes. Count Kosakowski was a friend of the beautiful Cornelia Martinetti, née Countess Rossi, whose Roman salon he frequented. In his meticulous Impressions romaines, E.-J. Delécluze mentions Cosacowski's (sic) participation in several social events between the end of January and the end of February 1824, at a time when Stendhal was in Rome. Prosper Duvergier de Hauranne, a close friend and disciple of Stendhal, also quotes him in a letter to Stendhal dated 14 June 1824: "We arrived in the Eternal City without the slightest accident to tell our friends and acquaintances, and except for the English who fled en masse, I found nothing changed. [...] After several ups and downs, Martinetti and Kosakowski, who were thought to be on the verge of splitting up, clung to each other again, and in the evening they formed a square party with Gabrielli and Monsignor Marini, whose sins do not include concealment. Everyone else in this house has been asking us a lot about you, and the author of Amélie [Cornelia Martinetti] is impatiently awaiting the publication of Sur l'amour". (Stendhal, Correspondance, p. 785). An exceptional copy given by Stendhal to Count Kosakowsky in charming contemporary bindings. From the Julien Bogousslavsky library, with bookplate. Spine slightly faded; upper headpieces skilfully restored. Cordier, n°18 - Vicaire, I, 451 - Carteret, II, 344 - Clouzot, 256.