From an old bookseller's catalog entry inserted.

First edition. At least a very early, if not the first, printing in book form of the lyrics of the song later adopted as the French National Anthem, here printed under the title, “Hymne des Marseillois.” The lyrics and original
music were composed 'In' haste by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a Captain quartered at Strasbourg, on April 24, 1772, at the request of the Mayor after the news of France’s declaration of war against Austria reached the city. It first bore the title, “Chant de guerre pour l’armee du Rhin,” and was printed under that title as a music broadsheet in Strasbourg shortly thereafter.

After it was sung by the detachment of soldiers who marched from Marseilles to Paris in late Jjuly as they massed in the Place de la Bastille, the Parisians adopted the song and it assumed its present title. It was sung by official order on the battlefield of Valmy, and thence forward served as the French National Anthem, barring periods of suppression under Napoleon and after the Restoration.

Constant Pierre’s Les hymnes et chansons de la revolution (1904) treats the publication history of the music and lyrics at great length, beginning with the extremely rare Strasbourg printing, and noting many further printings as sheet music in the years 1792-93. He records ten periodical printings prior to its appearance in this form, the first being on June 26 in Le journal des departments meridionaux.

As a single entry, he records this appearance in book form, as well as a printing in a collection entitled Le chansonnier republican, with no absolute ascription of priority. The song underwent various improvements and different scorings before it assumed its final form as one of the most stirring and vocally accessible of all national anthems.