Les Cabires et la Vénus mutilée

First edition, printed in a limited run, of this extract from the Revue britannique of February 1880.

Only three known copies in the CCF (BnF, INHA, and Sorbonne).

This copy is presented in its original wrappers, with a blank temporary cover.

Pamphlet adorned with in-text black-and-white illustrations.

In Greek mythology, the Cabeiri were minor deities worshipped in mystery cults across several regions of Greece, particularly on the islands of Samothrace, Lemnos, and Imbros.

These deities, little understood even by the Greeks themselves, were remnants of an Aegean past influenced by Phoenician culture, yet they later became protectors of navigation.

Claude-Sosthène Grasset d’Orcet (1828–1900) spent several years in Cyprus, where he conducted excavations, uncovering a vast array of artifacts. A portion of these was brought back to France in 1859 by the Saulcy Mission upon its return from the Holy Land, thus forming the first collection of Cypriot archaeology at the Louvre Museum.

He later participated in two further archaeological missions: first in Phoenicia with Ernest Renan (1859–1861), and then again in Cyprus with Melchior de Vogüé (see the inscription) and architect Edmond Duthoit (1862–1864).

On the front cover, a signed autograph inscription from Claude-Sosthène Grasset d’Orcet to his fellow archaeologist Charles-Jean-Melchior de Vogüé (1829–1916), who was also a diplomat.