FE1 - First French edition
| Publisher: | Maurice Schlesinger |
| Date: | X 1837 |
| Title: | Etudes || 1re Étude |
| Dedication: | Madame la Comtesse d'Agoult |
The base text for FE1 was a manuscript (lost), close to A, as far as the most important issues are concerned, yet in many details (e.g., slurs, pedalling, range of dynamic hairpins) clearly independent from it. According to us, it was most probably a copy of A, corrected and completed by Chopin. Another, less likely possibility is the use of another autograph or its copy as the base text.
FE1 was certainly corrected by Chopin, which is proved by visible traces of such type of corrections, which could have been commissioned only by the composer, e.g., the harmonic changes in the L.H. in bar 21. This and a few other changes not included either in A (→GE1) or in EE, e.g., dynamic signs in bar 4 and 7, were included also in GE2.
The authenticity of other versions, appearing only in FE1, is hard to confirm, although it seems to be likely – e.g., c1 instead of d
1 in bar 17 or e1 instead of a1 in bar 25, as well as different pedalling in bar 29 and 31, or the 
hairpins in bar 32.
FE1 is not free from more or less obvious errors, e.g., a
(1) in bar 22, b1 in bar 35, lack of pedal change at the end of bar 24 or slur in bars 43-44.
| Original in: | Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris |
| Shelf-mark: | Rés. F. 1580 |