Manuscript of 'The 120 Days of Sodom'

choi

Elaine Sciolino, It's a Sadistic Story, and France Wants It; A manuscript is 'depraved,' but also a cultural artifact. New York Times, Jan 22, 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/2 ... sades-120-days.html

Note:
(a) Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinism.
(i) Marquis de Sade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Sade
(1740-1814; a proponent of extreme freedom, unrestrained by morality, religion or law; Sade was incarcerated in various prisons and in an insane asylum for about 32 years of his life [74 years]; "The Sade men alternated using the marquis and comte (count) titles * * * without a King's grant")
(ii) The 120 Days of Sodom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_120_Days_of_Sodom
(a novel; written in 1785; ends in their [4 libertines'] slaughter; The work remained unpublished until the twentieth century; The original manuscript is currently located in the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, Geneva, Switzerland; section 3 Synopsis; section 5 Plot)

Quote:

"When the Bastille was stormed and looted on July 14, 1789 during the height of the French Revolution, Sade believed the work was lost forever and later wrote that he 'wept tears of blood' over its loss.

"However, the long roll of paper on which it was written was later found hidden in his cell, having escaped the attentions of the looters. It was first published in 1904 by the Berlin psychiatrist Iwan Bloch (who used a pseudonym, 'Dr Eugen Dühren,' to avoid controversy).

(iii) Bibliotheca Bodmeriana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Bodmeriana
(or Bodmer Library; Martin Bodmer established the library in the 1920s; photos)

* Bibliotheca Bodmeriana is Latin.
* bibliotheca (n; Latin, from Greek bibliothēkē, from bibli- + thēkē case; akin to Greek tithenai to put, place; First Known Use  circa 1824):
"a collection of books"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bibliotheca

(b) libertine
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/libertine
(c) The report mentions "Bruno Racine, director of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the National Library."
(i) The Italian noun masculine "bruno" is "brown" in English.
(ii) The Franch surname Racine is "from Old French racine ‘root’; a [] occupational name for a grower or seller of root vegetables."
(iii) bibliothèque (French noun feminine): "library"
(The French vocabulary does not include teh stand-alone "thèque.")  

(d) Pier Paolo Pasolini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_Paolo_Pasolini
(1922-1975; an Italian film director)
(i) The Pier, Piers, Pierce are some of the many forms of
Peter (given name)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_(given_name)
(ii) Paolo = Paul
(e) The report talks about "the family's estate in Fontainebleau."

Fontainebleau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontainebleau
(a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris; The name originates as a medieval composite of two words: Fontaine– meaning spring, or fountainhead, followed by a person’s Germanic name Blizwald)

(f) The report refers to "the manuscript of Stravinsky's ballet 'Les Noces.'"
(i) Igor Stravinsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Stravinsky
(1882-1971; considered to be one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century; born Russian but became French and American)
(ii) Les noces
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_noces
(French for The Wedding; Choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska
Composed by Igor Stravinsky; Date of premiere June 13, 1923)

(g)
(i) Giacomo Casanova
(1725-1798; Italian; The first draft of his memoir Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life) was completed by July 1792, and he spent the next six years revising it)
(ii) Michel Foucault
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault
(1926-1984)
(iii) Guy Debord
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Debord
(1931-1994; French)