[IMPRESSION LYONNAISE] Histoire des principales découvertes faites dans les arts et les sciences, sur-tout dans les branches importantes du commerce, de la navigation, & des plantations dans toutes les parties du monde ; traduite de l'Anglais par M. E..[LYON IMPRINT] History of the Principal Discoveries Made in the Arts and Sciences, Especially in the Important Branches of Commerce, Navigation, and Plantations in All Parts of the World; Translated from the English by M. E.]
First edition.
Contemporary full mottled fawn calf, smooth spine gilt with floral tools and gilt geometric tooling, tan calf lettering-piece, gilt rolls to the headcaps now largely faded, a small loss to the upper headcap, some rubbing to the joints, single blind fillet framing the covers, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the edges of the boards mostly worn away, yellow sprinkled edges, corners just a little softened; a period binding.
Sole edition of this history of travel since Antiquity, considered from the standpoint of its benefits to trade and commerce.
The work is nominally presented as a translation, though it is in fact by the Marseille man of letters Marc-Antoine Eidous (1724–1790), one of the industrious but somewhat pedestrian contributors to the Encyclopédie.