Domus Aurea. Autograph manuscript.

Large 8vo. French manuscript on paper. (4) pp. Unpublished poetic vision of a 19th century Domus aurea, written in the beautiful calligraphy of the great aesthete, beginning: "A room in which to dwell evokes being enclosed in a lacquer box. Golden walls, some smooth, some in relief, others in golden satin. Ceilings, the red of closed eyelids against the sun. Dry rose petal curtains, recalling a line from Anacreon: old, she still retains the scent of her youth [.]" (transl.). - While the description of the "Domus Aurea" is as beautiful as it is fantastic, a final section entitled "Observations g n rales" offers some thoughts on interior design: "Illuminate a dark corner either with mirrors during the day or with a lamp in the evening [.]". In the description of the garden, Montesquiou quotes the first stanza of his poem "Vester Vesper": "Dans le jardin, de fleurs, fleuri sur des toffes / O vous r unissez de rares philosophes. / O sera mainte tag re, adorable Babel / Du bibelot. Le Saxe avec le Chine, bel / Auditoire poli, cosmopolite, tendre / P te, jamais ne bouge et refuse d'entendre". This poem was published in 1906 as part of the anthology "Les Hortensias Bleus", thus indicating a terminus post quem for the manuscript. The "line from Anacreon" invoked by Montesquiou is a reference to the famous "Ode on the Rose" from the apocryphical Anacreontea. - With traces of former restauration and minimal browning. - Cf. Robert de Montesquiou, Les Hortensias Bleus (Paris, 1906), p. 122.