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Catalogue
78
Voyages
& Travels
History
& Natural History
Science & Technology
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With Magnificent Coloured Plates |
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46. [LAMI, EUGENE & HENRY MONNIER]. Voyage en Angleterre.
[Paris, Firmin Didot Frères, et Lami-Denozan; London, Colnaghi
Son et Co.], [1829]-1830. First edition. $5,300
Large folio; four leaves of letterpress descriptive text and 24
hand-coloured plates; original gilt-lettered cloth over boards with
morocco spine; cloth faded in places. A fine, clean copy, without
the original paper wrappers.
Hiler, p. 524; Lipperheide 995; Vicaire V:1-3; Colas 1748; Ray,
G. N,, Art of the French Illustrated Book. Eugène Louis Lami
(1800-1890) was a French painter and lithographer, who worked at
the studio of Horace Vernet before studying at the École
des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He first learned watercolour technique
from Richard Bonington, and then began working in lithography. Henry
Monnier (1799-1877) was a leading French caricaturist and artist,
greatly influenced by the works of the English satirical artists,
George Cruikshank and Thomas Rowlandson. After spending a couple
of years in London, he met up with Lami, and the two of them travelled
together in England, producing this fine set of lithographs. Their
working relation was interesting, with Lami contributing scenes
of the upper classes, while Monnier depicted the tradespeople and
working classes. A scarce work, with very beautiful plates.
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47.
LANGSDORFF, G[EORG] H[EINRICH] von. (1774-1852). Voyages
and Travels in Various Parts of the World, during the Years 1803,
1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807. London, Printed for Henry Colburn, ....
1813[-1814]. Two volumes. First edition in English. SOLD
4to; engraved frontispiece portrait, pp. xxi, [1] (Blank), [2],
362, [6] (Index); pp. [8], 386, [6] (Index); 1 folding engraved
map, 20 engraved plates, and small engravings of music in text;
contemporary full sprinkled calf, gilt-ruled; rebacked with spine
gilt, and morocco title-pieces gilt-stamped; marbled endpapers;
general light toning throughout, with little foxing on endpapers;
vol. I has a small waterstain at bottom gutter of Oo, Pp, Rr, and
Ss; in vol. II bottom corners of few leaves curled; overall a near-fine
set of this scarce and important work.
Vide Lada-Mocarski 69 (1st (German) ed.]; Forbes I:435; Kropelien
708; O'Reilly & Reitman 735; Hill 969; Pilling 21946; Graff
2391; Cowan, p. 382; Streeter Sale VI:3506; Sabin 38896; Wickersham
6243; Howes L81; Borba de Moraes I, p. 456-457. The author was a
physician, and the naturalist with Krusenstern on the latter's first
Russian circumnavigation of the globe, going as far as Kamschatka
which they reached in 1805. On the way to Kamschatka they stopped
at Brazil and sailed along the east coast of South America. Also
on this voyage was Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, Russian ambassador
to Japan who, with Langsdorff, left the expedition and set out for
the Aleutian Islands and for Alaska to check out and report on the
Russian-American Company for the Tsar. "The following year
Rezanov, with Langsdorff and Davydov, sailed from Sitka to San Francisco
to obtain food supplies for the Russian colony. Langsdorff's account
relates to his travels along the northwest coast and his journey
back across Siberia to St. Petersburg. Nearly seventy pages are
devoted to the account of the extensive visit by Rezanov to San
Francisco and the surrounding country, in 1806 .... Another result
of this visit was the establishment in 1812 of the Russian settlement
of Fort Ross on the California coast." - (Hill) The excellent
plates are after sketches by von Tilenau, who had accompanied Langsdorff
and Rezanov on the voyage. These plates relate to California, Alaska,
Japan, and the Marquesas Islands. An extremely important work in
the canon of American northwest coast voyages.
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"instrumental in the early recognition of tuberculosis"
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48. LE BOE, FRANCISCUS DE [SYLVIUS]. Opera Medica. Amsterdam,
D. Elsevir and A. Wolfgang, 1680. $750
Thick 4to; 4 ff, pp. 934, (26) (Index); lacks frontispiece portrait;
recent full calf in period style; blind-emboss on two leaves; old
repair to head of two prelim. leaves (no affect to text); a very
good copy of a scarce work.
Vide Garrison & Morton 2321 (1679 ed.); Pieters, Daniel Elsevir,
489; not in Goldsmid. Pieters claims that this edition and that
of 1679 are identical. Sylvius [1614-1672] established, at Leyden,
the first university chemical laboratory in Europe. He was also
instrumental in the early recognition of tuberculosis which, up
to his time, was known only in its advanced form. Little progress
was made in the knowledge of the condition until his assertion that
tubercles are often found in the lung, and that "they softened
and suppurated to form cavities" -(G & M) He was one of
the first to defend Harvey's theory of the circulation of blood,
which he demonstrated on dogs, and he was a brilliant representative
of the iatrochemical school of Paracelsus.
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49.
LE COMTE, LOUIS (1655-1729). Beschryvinge Van het machtige
Keyserryk China, Behelsende d'overgroote Provintien. ... Wyders
Derselver Outheye, goede Staatkunde, Regeringe ... In 'sGravenhage,
Engelbregt Boucquet, 1698. Two parts in one. First edition in Dutch.
[bound with]:
BOUVET, J[OACHIM] and CHARLES LE GOBIEN. 't Leven en Bedrijf
Van den tegenwoordigen Keiser van China, van't begin sijner 36 jaarige
Regeering, tot den Jaare 1698 ... Utrecht, Antony Schouten, 1699.
First edition in Dutch. $4,500
Small thick 4to; engraved frontispiece, pp. [18], 398 [i.e. 391],
[9] (Register), small engraved portrait, nine engraved plates (four
folding), and one folding engraved table ; pp. [8], 52, [4] (Register)
+ pp. [10], 111, [11] (Register); complete with divisional title
between Bouvet and Le Gobien; leaf **3 of the "Voorrede"
is a cancel; contemporary full vellum, lettered by hand on spine.
A very good copy of a scarce work.
Cordier, Sinica, I: 41-42 and I: 635; vide Cox I, pp. 329-330; Sommervogel
& De Backer II: 1357 (Le Comte), II:56 (Bouvet), and vide III:
1513 (Le Gobien) [later edition]. These letters from Le Comte contain
detailed accounts of all aspects of Chinese life. Because of his
very positive, non-critical descriptions of this non-Christian country
the French edition of 1696 was, according to Cox, ordered by the
Parliament of Paris to be burned. The Jesuits had a tumultuous and
controversial history in, and relationship with, China in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, and this work derives from this period.
Jesuit astronomers who were appointed to the observatory in Beijing
at the beginning of the sixteenth century ran into competition and
animosity with their Chinese colleagues and several of them were
either imprisoned or exiled. One of the earliest to come and stay
was Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), a Belgian who was in China for
a lengthy period of time; his work on astronomy at the observatory
went a long way in securing the future of the Jesuit mission in
China and the reputation of European science, in the reign of Emperor
Kangxi. A letter from Verbiest to his Superior, from Peking on October
4, 1683, is included at the end of Le Comte's work, and it seems
not to be in the first [French] edition of 1696. Joachim Bouvet
(1656-1730) spent most of his adult life in China, and for years
was in correspondence with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716),
the eminent German mathematician and philosopher, with whom he discussed
Confucianism, the Biblical concept of history, natural theology,
etc. Charles Le Gobien (1653-1708), like Le Comte and Bouvet, was
also a French Jesuit, born at Saint-Malo. He was a professor of
philosophy, was procurator of the Franco-Chinese mission, and foremost
in the field of attempting to awaken interest in the christianizing
of Eastern Asia and the Far East. He is probably best known for
his work on the Mariana Islands, and for his editing of the 24-volume
set of Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses ... (first edition) of 1702-1776.
A very important work relating to the Sino-Christian relations of
the seventeenth century.
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50.
[LE TURC, M.] Instructions Patriotiques et Militaires, Addressées
aux Anglois, A fin de s'opposer aux Invasions de l'Ennemi, dans
les différentes Possessions de sa Majesté, Le Roi
de la Grande Bretagne. Précédées de quelques
Vues nouvelles, relatives à la Fortification; soumises au
Jugement des Ingénieurs, & des Personnes qui cultivent
l'Art de la Guerre. Par un Citoyen du Monde. Londres, [s.n.], M.DCC.LXXX
(1780). First French edition. $1,950
Small 8vo; pp. [2], xi, [1], 141, [5] (Blank and Table des Matieres).
Four copper-engraved plates (captions on plates are in English).
Contemporary straight-grain red morocco; gilt roll border; gilt-tooled
spine; green lettering piece; marbled endpapers; gauffered edges;
inner dentelles. Slight foxing to prelims; some minor wear to upper
and lower joints, rear upper corner; wanting half-title and blank
leaf N6. Engraved bookplate of Harriet Mellon (1777?-1837), Duchess
of St. Albans.
ESTC T92100; Goldsmiths' 12110. M. Le Turc was an engineer and professor
of military sciences at L'Ecole militaire in Paris. The school was
founded by Louis XV in 1748 and had a number of illustrious students,
including Napoleon Bonaparte. Le Turc is the author of several books
on military arts and architecture. In this work, he discusses British
fortifications, military equipment and strategies for defense. Harriet
Mellon was a renowned actress, who began her career at a very young
age. A great favourite with the public, she was cast in numerous
roles throughout her life. She retired from the stage to marry banker
Thomas Coutts, and when he died he left her his entire fortune.
She married William Aubrey de Vere, ninth duke of St. Albans in
1827. This copy is in an interesting contemporary binding, seemingly
by the same binder who bound another copy of this work for King
George III (Christies' sale of June 26, 1991, lot 133). The two
bindings are in the identical red morocco, with the same metope
[an element used in Doric architecture] roll border on the covers,
and with some of the same tools used in the gilding of the spine.
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