Histoire générale des voyages

First 12mo edition translated from the English by Abbé Prévost, following the original French edition published in 1746 (20 volumes in quarto). The original English-language version, written by John Green (16..?-1757), was published in 1745.
The 72 volumes are illustrated with 324 engravings and a portrait of the author drawn by Charles-Nicolas Cochin fils, as well as 230 maps and plans by Bellin. Title pages printed in red and black.
Uniformly bound in full brown calf. Spines with five raised bands, richly gilt with floral tools, roll-stamped borders, and gilt fillets; red morocco title and volume labels. Boards framed with double or triple gilt fillets depending on the volume; gilt tooling to board edges; all edges red or sprinkled in green and red. Volume labels lacking on volumes LXI and LXV.

The full set of 72 volumes is organized as follows:
– Books I to VI cover Southeast Asia and the East Indies;
– Volumes VII to XVIII are devoted to Africa;
– Volumes XIX to XXIV continue the exploration of Asia, focusing primarily on China;
– Books XXV to XXIX deal with Eastern Tartary (northern Central Asia), Tibet, and parts of China;
– Volumes XXX to XXXIV return to the East Indies and recount the voyages of the Dutch and other navigators to the region;
– Volume XXXV stands apart, as it compiles the travels of a single explorer, Fernand Mendez Pinto. In the foreword to this volume, Abbé Prévost writes: “je dois au Public un article détaché qui n’a pû trouver place dans le plan des Anglais, parce qu’il ne regarde particulièrement aucun lieu ; qui ne peut être rejetté non plus entre les voyages autour du monde, parce qu’il n’a pas cette étendue, ni même entre ceux que j’ai nommés voyages errans, parce qu’il n’embrasse point d’autres pays que ceux des Indes”;
– Volume XXXVI follows a similar editorial choice, focusing on the Malabar Coast and French colonial establishments there;
– Volumes XXXVII and XXXVIII concern Hindustan;
– Volume XXXIX focuses on the Philippines;
– Volumes XL and XLI discuss both Japan and the southwestern East Indies;
– Book XLII addresses voyages “en terres australes et en Antarctique”;
– Volumes XLIII and XLIV recount the respective circumnavigations of William Dampier and Gemelli Careri, the latter extending to Mexico and providing a transition into travel narratives across the Americas;
– From volume XLV to volume LVIII, Abbé Prévost compiles travel accounts of the Americas, including North America, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil;
– Volumes LIX and LX concern the West Indies;
– Volumes LXI to LXIV comprise the general indexes;
– From volume LXV to LXVIII, each bears the title Suite de l’Histoire générale des voyages, focusing once more on Asia through Dutch expeditions;
– Finally, volumes LXIX to LXXII, titled Continuation de l’Histoire générale des voyages, recount travels across Siberia.
The final eight volumes, rarely found, were published by Panckoucke and cover Greenland, Kamchatka, and Lapland.
The illustrations and maps reflect the personal choices of Abbé Prévost. Dissatisfied with the images in the English edition, he replaced them entirely. For the maps, he commissioned Bellin, “Ingénieur de la Marine, Garde du Dépôt Royal des Plans et des Cartes.” The engravings were entrusted to Cochin fils, “renowned as much for the richness and charm of his invention as for the finesse of his line.” In the preface, Prévost comments: “Quoique les figures anglaises ne soient pas sans beauté, on trouvera la différence fort grande à l’avantage des miennes.”
Abbé Prévost was not merely a translator or commentator; he acted as a true editor, overseeing a new and ambitious publishing project for which he was the driving force. While he initially translated the first eight volumes nearly word for word, scholars have noted that from volume XII onward, Prévost increasingly expanded or altered Green’s original text.
Antoine-François Prévost d’Exiles, known as Abbé Prévost (1697–1763), was a clergyman, novelist, journalist, and historian. Though he took his vows in 1721, his ecclesiastical life was marked by frequent conflict, prompting him to flee abroad—most notably to Holland and London. These travels no doubt fostered his deep interest in travel literature, and he agreed to translate John Green’s A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels into French under the title Histoire générale des voyages, with the first volumes appearing in England in 1745. His goal was to assemble in a single corpus the finest accounts from across the globe.
To construct his Histoire des voyages, Prévost drew on the most well-known travel narratives of his time. He was careful to critically evaluate these texts, which he felt too often recounted the journeys and personal impressions of their authors rather than the history of the regions themselves. As Michèle Duchet noted in Anthropologie et histoire au siècle des Lumières (1971): “Prévost inaugure en France la critique des relations de voyages.” He aimed to cross-check his sources and present each account with both discernment and a touch of sensationalism. At times he even referenced fictional works such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey to illustrate the development of trade and navigation.
This richly textured work combines history, geography, fiction, and travel writing—a style emblematic of the author of the Mémoires et aventures d’un homme de qualité.
Sylviane Albertan-Coppola, in her essay “L’abbé Prévost romancier et éditeur de voyages” (Roman et récit de voyage, Presses de l’Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2001), underscores this blend of genres: “Avec Prévost, le lecteur s’embarque dans un roman comme dans un voyage et dans un voyage comme dans un roman, ce qui n’est pas sans poser quelques intéressants problèmes d’ordre narratif autant que scientifique. [...] Jouant sur les deux types d’écriture, celle du roman et celle du voyage, Prévost rend ainsi le roman plus vrai [...] et il confère aux récits de voyage des accents romanesques, qui correspondent au goût des lecteurs du temps. Les deux genres alors se rejoignent sous le sceau de la littérature d’évasion.”
The Chevalier de Jaucourt, in his article “Voyage, voyageur” for the Encyclopédie, distinguishes between the “voyage de long cours,” intended to advance scientific knowledge, and the “voyage d’éducation,” aimed at moral or pedagogical ends. Prévost clearly uses the former with didactic purpose. The abundance of illustrations and narrative elements—such as the romance of two young Indian slaves in love—serve this pedagogical intent. His engravings are meant to captivate, to share the traveler’s “astonishment,” echoing Cicero’s rhetorical principle of “to delight and instruct.”
The first major compilation of its kind, this encyclopedic work proved a vital source for Enlightenment thinkers, historians, and novelists alike.
An exceptional, profusely illustrated set, rare in uniform binding.