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As reported in the 110th edition of the Revue Spirite (1st quarter of 2018), recent research by several Latin American researchers has allowed the establishment of - based on documents kept in the National Library of France (BNF) and National Archives (AN) - the sequence of editions of Allan Kardec's 5th basic book: (1)
- The first four editions are strictly identical, unlike the various testimonies (see below) and the biographies of Allan Kardec;
- They were printed in October 1867, in 3,000 copies, corresponding to the first three editions, then, in February 1869, 2,000 copies, corresponding to the fourth edition, during the author’s life;
- The 5th edition, revised, corrected and extended, was published only in December 1872, more than three years after the author disincarnated.
We published in the above Spiritist Magazine, with the author’s permission, Simoni Privato Goidanich, a translation of chapter 23 of his book, El legado de Allan Kardec, giving the details of the research he did in Paris. (2)
The complementary analysis that we propose in this article refers essentially to the typographic part. It was made by our brother Michel Buffet, who knows this work well, having worked in the press. His analysis was carried out in five original copies of this book that we were able to gather: the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd edition, all dated 1868, as well as the 5th revised edition, corrected and enlarged, with no date, but of which the legal deposit in the BNF dates from December 1872 and the seventh edition, dated 1883, shortly before the accusation of the possible adulteration of Henri Sausse in the magazine Le Spiritisme, 2nd year, no.19, the first fortnight, December 1884, which we reproduce later in this article. (3)
This type of analysis can only be accurate by handling the original printed volumes, given the sometimes insufficient definition of onlinescanning, as well as the ability to examine the role and the intensity of the type pressure. Unfortunately, we do not have an original copy of the 4th edition, so the review was limited to its content.
We have also added the text of an original document by Allan Kardec, proving the adulteration committed by P-G. Leymarie regarding the transcription of this document in the Spiritist Magazine of March 15, 1887 and in Posthumous Works.
Comparison of different issues of Genesis
The contents of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th edition are strictly identical.
These editions were taken from the same forms of original typographic compositions (movable type). We have the same gaps in the same letters on the same pages.
The contents of the 5th and 7th editions are identical.
The 5th edition is a complete reorganization from a cast of different characters, justifying that for the same text, the formatting of the line is different, requiring a complete layout, and that with the modifications made a different search is added, changing the pagination.
The 4th and 5th editions are different and the importance of the differences shows that we have to make a total reorganization. So they are different editions.
The 5th and 7th editions are identical in content, but are differentiated by quality: we can verify that the 7thused fingerprints. These prints (4) or blanks are made from the original composition in free characters, allowing, when there are more corrections to make (corrections that are made letter by letter by the composer), to have the page (or the form of impression imposed) in question in this hollow or blank mold and to be able to make a lead-antimony alloy template which will be faithful to the page (or the imposed impression form) in question. There is clearly a loss of quality understandable due to the printing. This is not the case in the first five editions, taken from an original typographic composition in the movable type (Fig. 1).
The problem of the clichés is not seen in the first five editions, and the problem of the casting for the composition of the first four editions does not appear either, since the 5th edition was completely restored.
The first four editions have 460 pages and the 5th and 7th editions have 472 pages.
This might give credit to the word "increased" in the title page. However, comparing the two versions, the fourth contains 125,979 words, while the fifth contains only 125,006, about 1,000 fewer words in the "increased" revision. This is understandable by the large number of paragraphs that were excluded in the 5th edition, while little new text was added. The increase in the number of pages is explained only by the reorganization, and not by the increase of the text. The word "increased" on the cover is therefore abusive; Allan Kardec certainly would not have done such a thing.
For printers, any document must include a printer’s name, in addition to the publisher, if there is one. When checking the names of printers in different editions, we can see that:
- The 5th edition presents: Typography Rouge Frères et Comp. Rue du Four St. Germ., 43.
- The 3rd edition presents: Paris. - Typography ROUGE FRERE, DUNON ET FRESNE. Rue du Four Saint Germain, 43.
This is the same address and name of the same printer, according to P.-G. Leymarie’s statement that the first six editions were made by this printer.
As far as the paper analysis is concerned, the second and third editions seem identical. The first edition appears to be of the same weight, but the paper is less smooth, and the total thickness of the 460 pages is slightly higher: 23.5 mm, versus 23 mm for the first. This continues to be confirmed by a more detailed analysis and an additional analysis of an original copy of the 4th edition.
Impressions, reprints and editions:
According to the documents gathered in Simoni Privato's book, the authenticity of which has been confirmed by us, the additional information on legal deposit and applications for authorization to print are as follows:
- October 7, 1867: request for permission to print 3,000 copies per typ. ROUGE FRERE, DUNON ET FRESNE. As explained below, this first impression corresponds to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions, of 1,000 copies each, sold in 1868 and 1869.
- February 7, 1869: application for authorization to print an additional 2,000 copies per typography ROUGE FRERE, DUNON ET FRESNE. This second printing corresponds to the 4th edition, strictly identical to the first three, sold until 1872.
Legal Deposit at the National Library of France:
- January of 1868 for the first edition.
- December 1872 for the 5th edition.
There was no other legal deposit during this period, which confirms that all editions were identical before the 5th edition.
It is also possible to follow editions for sale over time, examining the references in the Spiritist Magazine, the books published at the time and the "Rational Catalog of works that can be used to start a Spiritist Library":
- The Spiritist Magazine of 1867, whose annual collection was published in early 1868, does not mention the issue number, so it is the first.
- The same applies to the January 1868 issue, page 31, announcing the book's release on January 6, 1868.
- The February 1868 edition, page 64, announces that the 1st edition was sold-out and the launch of the 2nd edition. We can see that the first 1,000 copies happened within the period of one month, under the effect of the launch of a new book by a renowned author. We will see further confirmation of this later, according to a manuscript by Allan Kardec.
- The March 1868 issue, page 95, announces the 2nd edition sold-out and the launch of the 3rd edition. We see that the next 1,000 copies sold well in the second month, leading to the launch of the 3rd edition, selling-out almost 3,000 copies of the first run.
- The annual collection of the Spiritist Magazine of 1868, published in early 1869, mentions the 3rd edition, shortly before the second printing, whose application for authorization was made in mid-February 1869.
- The cover of the original copies of the monthly editions of the Spiritist Magazine of 1869 includes the catalog of works by Allan Kardec. The issues of January, February, September, October and November of 1869 mention the 3rd edition.
- The annual collection of the Spiritist Magazine of 1869, published in early 1870, still mentions the 3rd edition.
The last two elements above may suggest that the 3rd edition was only approved at the end of 1869 and sales fell. However, these covers do not appear to have been systematically updated, and what confirms is the "Rational Catalog", whose first edition was published by Allan Kardec in March 1869 and attached to the Spiritist Magazine of April 1869 (the last compound by Allan Kardec before his disincarnating on March 31, 1869).
Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to find an original copy of this catalog, but the following issues of the same year, published in August 1869 by the Spiritist Bookstore, located on rue de Lille, 7 (of which Pierre Gaëtan Leymarie did not yet participate), 4th edition of Genesis, thus confirming that the 3rd edition of the first publication of 1867 was sold-out, and the sale of the 4th edition, corresponding to the impression requested by Allan Kardec in February 1869.
This fourth edition always mentions A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven et Cie, Éditeurs, the office of the Spiritist Magazine in Street and Passage Ste-Anne, 59, and the date of 1868. Since the request for printing is from February 1869.
One may wonder why the year was not changed in 1869 as well as the address of the Passage Sainte Anne to rue de Lille: probably because of the new address, announced only by Allan Kardec in the Spiritist Magazine of April, 1869, because it had not yet been defined at the beginning of the printing in February 1869, and it was not essential to change the year, the fourth edition being identical to the first three of 1868. As for the publisher, its bankruptcy in Paris dates from 1872, not since 1869, as stated by P.-G. Leymarie.
(This article will continue in the next issue of this magazine).
1 - Tradução LMSF- Le Mouvement Spirite Francophone - de: Kempf, Charles; Buffet, Michel. Analyse typographique des sept premières éditions de La Genèse d’Allan Kardec. Revue Spirite. Supplément spécial de fin d’année. 161o année. 4ème trimestre 2018.
2 - In Brazil: The legacy of Allan Kardec. Ed.USE-SP, 2018.
3 - Available in: Spiritist Encyclopedia,www.spiritisme.net; www.kardecpedia.com; The Legacy of Allan Kardec, Ed.USE-SP, 2018.
4 - In print, the stereotype (etymologically, "embossed type") is also called cliché. This is a specific term for type printing. The "white" flexible sheet molds made it possible to obtain folded images, adaptable to the printing cylinders of typographic printers, which printed most newspapers until the offsetprinting appeared.
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