Maurice Lachatre
(Ref. 18467)
Lisbon; Empreza Editora do Mestre Popular; In-4 of 5 volumes; Illustrated; Bound
"Mysteries and iniquities of the court of Rome, crimes of kings, queens and emperors over centuries by (...) Translation by Augusto José Vieira."
* Maurice Lachâtre (Issoudun, 14 October 1814 - Paris, March 9, 1900), syncopated form and pseudonym of Maurice de la Châtre, was an influential and important intellectual, French publisher and writer. He was responsible for the encyclopedia New Universal Dictionary, and better known by its relation with the Auto of faith of Barcelona, in 1861. Son of Colonel Pierre Denis, baron of La Châtre, Maurice de La Châtre was born in the commune of Indre, moved still new to the French capital, then in great cultural effervescence. In Paris he becomes an uncompromising defender of freedom of expression, of avant-garde thought and in constant confrontation with the Church and the regime of Napoleon III. He was arrested in 1857 for having published the work of Eugène Sue, Mystères du peuple (Mysteries of the People), and still had to pay a fine of 6,000 francs. He is condemned a year later by the regime of Napoléon le petit, for the publication of the Universal Dictionary Illustrated to six years of seclusion but escapes to Barcelona in order to escape the absolutist persecution. In Spain he soon established himself as a bookseller, and he lived there until 1870. He imported the works of Karl Marx and Engels, and by bringing to that country 300 Spiritist books which he had commissioned Allan Kardec, although having fulfilled all legal requirements, seized and by Bishop Antonio Palau y Termens, who burned them in a public square in a car of faith, which passed into the history of that belief as a landmark of intolerance. In spite of this, the works began to arrive at that country by diverse forms. The 27 of January of 1869 had its work The History of the Popes, that published initially in 1842-1843 in 10 volumes, that to be destroyed at the command of the Church. With the Paris Commune he returns to his homeland and, along with Félix Pyat, publishes the newspaper Vengeur but, with the defeat of the popular revolt and the brutal reaction of the government, he returns to Spain, where he dedicates himself to the New Universal Dictionary - the largest and most complete encyclopedia published so far.
Work profusely illustrated with drawings and engravings.
Half-bound booklets with slight signs of handling. Miolo in good condition.