DUMAS Alexandre (1802-1870).

Autograph manuscript signed to his doctor, "April 24" (n.d.) 8 pp. in-4, on blue paper. Transcript attached. Manuscript written in the manner of a fantastic story that could be entitled: Histoire de quatre crânes ou comment quatre crânes tombèrent entre les mains du docteur Miraglia. This fantastic story is an extract of chapters I and II of the book "Les fous du docteur Miraglia". This story was first published in La Presse ("Variétés" column) on June 6, 7, 8, 1863 and then in volume in the collection "Jacques Ortis ; Les fous du docteur Miraglia" in 1867. This one was part of his cycle of travel impressions like "Une année à Florence". Dumas tells that at the time of the restoration of the Capuano castle, Doctor Miraglia was treating the daughter of the prefect of Naples. He asked the father of his young patient to give him a gift of some skulls of criminals exposed in the cages nailed to the walls of the Capuano castle. Happy to possess the treasure he had been longing for, Miraglia locked himself away and began his study. He studied the skulls and from their shapes and sizes deduced the sex, age, qualities and defects of the characters. To find their identity, he researched the criminal archives. His four skulls made him discover a sordid story leading to a heinous murder that Dumas then recounts in great detail. Publication in Italian: I pazzi di Aversa in L'Indipendente (announcement III, n°92-97, 24-25, 27, 30 April 1863), then published in 1864 I fallu des doctor Miraglia.