Rémont

First edition illustrated with 5 plates (a figure of a Mameluke on horseback, a view of Mourat-Bey's palace, a plan, an elevation and a cross-section of the pyramids of Giza) after the author's drawings and a large folding map of Cairo.
Modern half marbled tawny calf binding with small corners. The spine is a skillful and deceptive pastiche of the original binding. The boards are period, unchanged. Smooth spine decorated with roulettes. Gilt title. Boards and corners rubbed. The map is detached. The 2 single plates are shorter on the outer margin. A handsome copy.
Just after Bonaparte's Egyptian Campaign, Grobert was placed as commander at Giza. He provides us with one of the first Western descriptions of the pyramids with very fine details and measurements, as well as their histories. The work also contains a description of the city of Cairo. The volumes of the Description de l'Égypte would not appear until 1810 (dated 1809).

Stated the second edition, but actually the third, enlarged, with three volumes and eight plates of constellations; rare. The first edition appeared in 1770 in a single volume, a second being added in 1771.

Contemporary spotted sheep, spine with four tools and roulettes to head and foot, red morocco title- and black morocco volume- labels, roulette frame to covers. Spines uniformly and slightly faded, lack to first blind-ruled compartment of spine of volume one. A good copy.

The work, in the form of an alphabetical dictionary, provides an overview of contemporary knowledge of natural history (mineralogy, botany, zoology, entomology, astronomy, and so on). Each article includes a curious or remarkable aspect of its subject (medical uses, strange properties, characteristics, etc). Several useful tables at end. Handsome.