APOLLINAIRE Guillaume (1880-1918)

Two false princes of Albania Autograph notes on Stephano ZANNOWICH. S.l.n.d., 7 pages in-4 mounted on tabs. Bradel pink half calf (Lavaux). Bibliographical notes in which Apollinaire carefully notes the publications of Stephano Zannowich, "an impostor who claimed to be Prince Castriotto of Albania; born on February 18, 1751 in Pastrovicio, a town in Venetian Albania, of a father who was a mule and slipper merchant, and a frantic gambler, who died on May 25, 1786, committing suicide"... This is followed by very precise bibliographical entries, and sometimes commented, according to Brunet, La France littéraire and Les Supercheries littéraires dévoilées by Quérard, who also quotes Weiss and Barbier. Zannowich's work includes Epîtres et chansonnettes amoureuses d'un oriental, Le Fameux Pierre III, empereur de Russie ("Before becoming prince of Albania, Zannowich had tried, in the country of the Montenegrins, The Great Castriotto of Albania, The Political Horoscope of Poland, Prussia, England, Turkish Letters, Thoughts of Stepan Annibale, old shepherd of Albania, etc. His posthumous works are presented with quotations from the author. In Les Supercheries littéraires, Apollinaire discovers and copies the article "Albania (Stiepan Annibale d') (the impostor Stephano Zannowich)", author of L'Alcoran des princes, by the prince of Albania, published in 1783 in Saint Petersburg: the work "was attributed, wrongly, by some bibliographers, to J.B. Cloots".