Stendahl, whose real name is Marie-Henri Beyle, produces a second work in 1817, Histoire de la peinture en Italie (History of Italian Painting), the only book that he publishes under his own name

Like his earlier The Lives of Haydn, Mozart and Metastasio, it is also largely a plagiarization but nonetheless demonstrating an originality of mind.

He follows this the same year with the publication of Rome, Naples, and Florence, a travel book.

At seventeen, Stendahl had obtained a commission in Bonaparte’s army in Italy in 1800, courtesy of an influential Paris cousin.

In 1807 Stendhal had stayed near Stendal, where he fell in love with a woman named Wilhelmine, whom he called Minette, and for whose sake he remained in the city.

Stendhal added an additional "H" to make more clear the Germanic pronunciation.

Before settling on the pen name Stendhal, he had published under many pen names, including "Louis Alexandre Bombet" and "Anastasius Serpière".

From the publication of Rome, Naples, Florence (September 1817) onward, he has published his works under the pseudonym "M. de Stendhal, officier de cavalerie".

He has borrowed this nom de plume from the German city of Stendal, birthplace of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, an art historian and archaeologist famous at this time.