Le Bordereau, Etude des Depositions de M. Bertillon et du Capitaine Valerio au Conseil de Guerre de Rennes, Par un Ancien Eleve De L'ecole Polytechnique. Texte / Planches [The Slip, a Study of the Depositions of Mr. Bertillon and Captain Valerio at the Military Court in Rennes, by a Former Student at the École Polytechnique]. Paris: Hardy & Bernard, 1904. French. One volume of text and one volume of plates.
Two booklets composing a research on the subject of the "Bordereau" ["Slip"], which Alfred Dreyfus was accused of having written. The discovery of this slip – containing classified French military intelligence and dispatched to the Germany Embassy in Paris – sparked the beginning of what became known as the "Dreyfus Affair." The first booklet contains the text, and the second features plates, including photocopies of Dreyfus's handwriting, diagrams analyzing handwriting, and more. Much is based on the testimonies in court against Dreyfus, in particular those delivered by Alphonse Bertillon. The latter was a French police officer, regarded as one of the pioneers of biometric identification. Although, in the end, he did not turn out to be much of an expert on handwriting analysis, he was called upon to testify in the trial as an expert witness, whereupon he insisted that Dreyfus was the person responsible for writing the slip.
Volume of text: 64 pp., 27 cm. Good condition. Few stains and creases. Notations in pencil. Volume of plates: [23] ff., 37.5 cm. Good condition. Fold lines and creases. Repairs with adhesive tape to some folded plates. Two booklets bound together in new binding, 38 cm.