[CONSULAT] Magazin de littérature européenne ou recueil de pièces intéressantes, soit originales, soit traduites de l'allemand, de l'italien et de l'espagnol. Tome premier

First illustrated edition, featuring at the end of the volume 12 charming hand-coloured copper engravings depicting fashionable hairstyles and costumes (10), as well as furniture (2).

Contemporary binding in half midnight-blue calf, smooth spine decorated with lozenge tools and gilt fillets, gilt tail ornament, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, marbled edges.

The work is also illustrated with a portrait of Bonaparte as a frontispiece and one plate hors-texte.

Foxing, black ink stains to page 81.

This work, intended for an American readership, as stated in the Preface ("L'espèce de journal dont nous offrons ici le premier essai, ne contiendra que rarement des analyses d'ouvrages nouveaux, mais une suite de morceaux détachés qui nous paraîtront le plus propre à faire connaître au public américain le goût actuel des différentes littératures de l'Europe") is in fact far more than a literary collection, offering a genuine overview of the state of the world (political, artistic, geographical, etc.) during the Consulate and the rise of the future emperor.

Alongside the 12 charming engravings, it contains documents which, though modest in extent, are of considerable interest: a short notice on Toussaint-Louverture, just after proclaiming a constitution granting him full powers for life; a portrait of the inhabitants of Benin, drawing on the then unique work of Palissot Beauvois; a brief notice on Abbé Sicard, educator of the deaf and mute; a "portrait de Bonaparte" at the very moment his fame was beginning to spread; an overview of "Journaux et gazettes politiques dans les États-Unis de l'Amérique"; and various literary pieces.

In short, a compelling distillation of the spirit of the age.