First edition originally written in French and illustrated at the end of the volume with a single engraved plate.
The English numismatist Henry Perigal Borrell (1795–1851) settled early in the Ottoman Empire as a dealer (in Smyrna in 1818). He quickly became one of the principal suppliers of the British Museum and of the English aristocracy in coins, medals and antiquities.
Small tears to the spine and a more significant one at the head of the upper cover, some light foxing.
Copy comprising two translations in first edition by M. de Marolles, Abbé de Villeloin. Charming allegorical title-frontispiece depicting the authors and their works, the latter represented as two mischievous cherub-satyrs. Several headpieces, some with coats of arms, tailpieces, and decorated initials with floral and figural motifs.
Contemporary binding in full polished brown calf, spine with four gilt raised bands, decorated with four compartments with gilt fleurons and roulettes, double gilt fillet framing the boards.
Darkening to the spine and lower board, rubbing and scratches to the boards, one corner bumped.
Scattered foxing and dampstaining in the margins, affecting the text only slightly, small marginal hole at p. 201, faint brown ink mark at p. 101.
Rare first edition, limited to 50 copies.
A single copy recorded in the CCF (BnF).
Contemporary cream boards, smooth spine, the original printed front wrapper preserved and mounted on the upper cover.
Spine split, boards darkened, clean and pleasant internal condition.
The Toulon scholar Pons (1789–1836) is known both for his studies on the history of his native city and for his research in numismatics (a substantial portion of his posthumous manuscripts was devoted to this field).
On the title page, a signed autograph presentation inscription from Ange-Thomas-Zénon Pons to the celebrated archaeologist and epigraphist Jean-Antoine Letronne (1787–1848), with his ink stamp alongside.
First edition, illustrated with a double-page folding map composed of seventeen plates, together with twelve figures in the text (cf. Hague Chahine 1504.).
Bradel binding in half glazed brown cloth, smooth spine with the date gilt at the foot, red shagreen title-label showing minor surface marks, stone-patterned paper boards, corners lightly rubbed; a contemporary binding.
Some scattered foxing.
Account of an archaeological mission including an extensive study of Safaitic inscriptions, with a glossary and an index of proper names.
Original offprint, printed in a small number of copies, of this extract from the Nouvelles annales des voyages for November 1858.
The original temporary front wrapper has been reattached; a few spots of foxing; the title written in pencil on the front cover.
No copy of this review recorded in the CCF.
Charles-Ernest Beulé’s monograph on the coinage of Athens had just been published earlier that same year, in 1858.
First edition of the French translation by Edouard Chavannes of an extract from the Journal of the Peking oriental society.
Contemporary Bradel-style binding in full grey percaline, smooth spine decorated with a gilt fleur-de-lis, double gilt fillet at the foot, cherry shagreen lettering-piece with surface scuffing, partially toned endpapers.
This was the translator’s first scholarly publication devoted to this treatise, which forms the twenty-eighth chapter of the celebrated Shiji (Historical Records) by the first true Chinese historian, Sima Qian (145–86 BCE).
These records constitute the first systematic synthesis of Chinese history and served as the model for all subsequent dynastic annals.
The great sinologist Edouard Chavannes (1865–1918), who lived in China from 1889 to 1893, was moreover the first to undertake a complete translation of the Shiji (five volumes published between 1895 and 1905, unfortunately covering only 47 of the 130 sections of the original work).
Copy enriched with a signed presentation inscription to Georges Cogordan (1849–1904), French Minister Plenipotentiary in Peking from 1885 to 1894.
New quarto edition, revised and corrected by the author, with numerous decorated headpieces, initials and tailpieces.
Full polished brown calf, spine in six compartments with five raised bands richly gilt-tooled, red morocco lettering-piece, triple blind fillet border to boards, double gilt fillet to board edges, red edges, marbled pastedowns and endpapers.
Light scratches and scuffing to boards, corners slightly bumped, otherwise a very fine copy.
Paper flaw causing marginal tears on pp. 49, 571 and 595, light scattered foxing affecting a few gatherings towards the end of the volume, minor wormhole to lower corner of pp. 253 onwards, ending in a charming emoji.
First edition, illustrated with three folding in-text tables (Cf. Brunet, III, 330. Vivien de Saint-Martin, Voyages faits en Asie Mineure depuis le XIIIe siècle, no. 148. Atabey, The Ottoman World, 1126. Weber, II, 595. Not in Blackmer, but see nos. 1530 & 1531.)
Half calf binding with corners, spine gilt-tooled with lyres and decorative friezes, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of decorative patterned paper.
Restorations with small losses to head and tail of spine, staining to the boards and to the upper and lower margins of the leaves.
This account follows that of the Voyage de Constantinople à Bassora. The journey was undertaken while Sestini was in the service of Robert Ainslie, the British ambassador to the Porte.
He travelled across Asia Minor and returned via Baghdad, Aleppo, Alexandria, and Cyprus.
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Recueil des notices et mémoires de la Société archéologique de Constantine de l'année 1873.
Not in Tailliart.
Front wrapper detached then reattached, losses to the spine, small chips to the corners.
Scarce work illustrated with 14 plates printed hors texte and numbered I–XII (including plates VI bis and ter). Not in Tailliart.
A volunteer in the Corps of Engineers from 1841 onward, Baptiste-Charles Brunon (1821–1888) spent most of his military career in Algeria; after the 1871 war he returned to oversee the Engineering Corps in Constantine.
First edition describing the 388 items offered in the sale.
A few pencilled hammer prices in the margins, a loss to the upper right corner of the front wrapper and title-page, and small corner losses to the wrappers.
The introduction is by Fröhner, though the expert in charge of the sale was Hoffmann.
Of Baden origin, the numismatist Ludwig Wilhelm Fröhner (1834–1925) settled in Paris in 1859; he became a close friend of Napoleon III and assisted him in the preparation of his Histoire de Jules César (1865–1866), which helped him obtain both French naturalisation (1866) and an important post at the Louvre.
He later devoted himself to the cataloguing of collections, producing works that became major references for Antiquity and early medieval archaeology.
First edition of this Latin work devoted to the history of the ancient Mediterranean: Sardinia and the influences of Greece, North Africa, the Syrtes and Numidian tribes, the history of the tyrant of Syracuse, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, the island of Rhodes, and more (cf. Adams, L-704. See Durling, 2796, which records only later editions).
Restored full brown calf binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt tools now largely softened, blind fillets and gilt corner ornaments framing the boards, central gilt medallion enclosing a device in Greek characters, manuscript inscription on the fore-edge, early binding.
Ink numbering at the head of the verso of the lower cover; inner hinge cracked.
Handsome volume from the Basel press of Johannes Froben, bearing his printer’s device on the title-page and at the end.
Nicknamed “the prince of printers,” Johann Froben was among the first to employ italic types, inspired by Aldus Manutius.
A professor of philosophy, Greek, and Latin at the University of Padua, the Venetian scholar Tomeo Nicolò Leonico (1456–1531) was admired by Erasmus.
First edition, illustrated at the close of the volume with six plates printed out of text.
Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Institut, Strasbourg).
Our copy is preserved in its original state, issued in a temporary paper wrapper.
Spine restored at head with small losses; marginal losses to the soiled covers; two small adhesive strips along the right margins of the final plate; author’s name and title pencilled on the upper cover.
The study of Phoenician languages was the speciality of Auguste-Célestin Judas (1805–1873).
First edition, printed in a small run, of this offprint from the Journal des savants.
Work illustrated with a finely engraved plate printed outside the text.
Some scattered foxing internally and to the wrappers.
Appointed in 1820 to the chair of archaeology at the Sorbonne, succeeding Quatremère de Quincy, Désiré Raoul-Rochette (1789–1854) was chiefly known for his expertise in Greek antiquity. He also served as curator of the Cabinet des médailles.
On the upper cover, authorial presentation inscription from Désiré Raoul-Rochette to the physician and botanist Henri Dutrochet (1776–1847), the discoverer of the phenomena of exosmosis and endosmosis.
Very rare first edition.
This printing does not include the two maps later added by the publisher in the second issue, intended to illustrate the itinerary for readers who had not acquired the atlas (corresponding to plates XVIII and XXIV of the atlas), cf. Hage Chahine 3995. Röhricht 480-481. Chadenat 1712.
The text volume is largely unopened and includes one full-page plate.
The atlas volume, housed in a red full-cloth box and slipcase, is complete with all 27 plates (numbered I to XXVI, XVIII [bis]; plates XIX-XX are printed on a single sheet).
A very fine and rare copy in its original condition.
First edition.
Contemporary half calf in a bronze tone, the spine with four raised bands framed by double gilt rules and gilt pointillé work, together with broad black fillets; joints rubbed, marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers, edges sprinkled; a period binding.
Scattered foxing.
Very rare first edition of this splendid photographic album, produced in Cairo in 1871, representing the first illustrated catalogue of the earliest museum devoted to Egyptology.
The photographs by Hippolyte Delié and Émile Béchard depict the rooms and antiquities of the Boulaq Museum, founded in Cairo in 1863 by the eminent Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821–1881).
The album comprises forty albumen prints (approx. 24.5 × 18 cm), mounted on thick card leaves set on guards, each accompanied by a letterpress commentary leaf (except plates 4 and 11, which each have two). The prints are mounted on the versos of the plates, the rectos bearing the printed captions.
Contemporary half brown shagreen, spine with five raised bands decorated with blind-tooled compartments and gilt floral tools, minor rubbing to spine and joints, headcaps slightly softened, blind-tooled interlaced borders on the boards, gilt title on upper board, endpapers and pastedowns in white moiré silk with a few light spots, all edges gilt.
Repairs to the spine and one joint at head, a few scattered internal spots.
First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with four hors-texte plates printed on chamois paper.
Not recorded by Brunet, who lists the author’s principal works.
Scattered foxing, including to the boards.
The orientalist Michelangelo Lanci (1779–1867) produced a fascinating blend of genuine erudition and improbable conjectures, shaped by the pre-critical and broadly concordist mindset then prevailing without challenge in the learned circles of pontifical Rome (Lanci being a subject of the Pope).
This largely accounts for the profound neglect into which most of his works have since fallen.
Prisse d’Avennes (1807–1879), who had worked with Champollion on the decipherment of hieroglyphic script, must have received with some surprise these observations drawn essentially from personal interpretations of Old Testament texts.
Uncommon first edition.
An early controversy over the skin color of the first known anthropoids, marked by sharply divided opinions rooted as much in common preconceptions as in anthropological analysis.
All participants in the debate were recognized authorities in their respective fields: Pierre-Toussaint Marcel de Serres de Mesplès (1780–1862) in geology; Pierre Lacour (1778–1859) in art history and techniques; and Charles Des Moulins (1798–1875) in botany.
Minor tears and slight losses at the corners of the wrappers, without affecting integrity.
Manuscript ex-libris “La Neufville” at the head of the front cover.
First edition of the French translation by Jean Mourier.
Only one copy listed in the CCF (BULAC).
Full burgundy cloth binding, smooth spine with gilt lettering running lengthwise, pink paper pastedowns and endpapers, a modest modern binding.
Some light, insignificant foxing.
Very rare work tracing the origins of the Kingdom of Georgia up to the introduction of Christianity.
Rare first edition illustrated with 31 figures in the text.
Contemporary half blond calf, the spine slightly sunned, with five raised bands decorated with gilt and black fillets, fawn morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper sides, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled comb-marbled edges.
Christophe-Edouard Mauss (1829–1914), architect to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, undertook several archaeological missions in the Levant (Salonika, Smyrna, Alexandria) before being sent by the French government to Jerusalem (1862–1874) to restore the Church of Saint Anne.
He was also deeply interested in ancient metrology, on which he wrote several monographs (the final section of the present work provides a notable example).
Our copy is enriched with a substantial autograph contribution by Christophe-Edouard Mauss, mounted on a guard at the front of the volume and addressed to the archaeologist Alban-Emmanuel Guillaume-Rey (1837–1916), a specialist in medieval Syria: Note pour Mr. Rey sur le stade philéterien de 159 m 963,428 ([9] unnumbered ll., unbound, written on one side only, in a medium and very legible hand). This is an early version of an article supplementing the present work and published in 1894 under the title: Note additionnelle sur le stade de 159 m 963 et sur les mesures philétériennes.
Very rare first edition.
Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Sainte-Geneviève, CNAM).
Half blond calf, spine lightly sunned, with five raised bands decorated with gilt and black fillets, tan morocco lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, mottled comb-marbled edges, original front wrapper preserved; contemporary binding.
The architect of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Christophe-Edouard Mauss (1829–1914), undertook several archaeological missions in the Levant (Salonika, Smyrna, Alexandria) before being sent by the French government to Jerusalem (1862–1874) to restore the Church of Saint Anne. He also developed a keen interest in ancient metrology, on which he produced several monographs (including this one).
Bound after it, by the same author:
I. La Pile de Charlemagne et le Sâ du prophète. Le pied d'Egypte et le ratl de Bagdad. Les poids français comparés aux poids anglais. Le ratl wâfy du Musée égyptien du Louvre. Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1897, 2 ff.n.ch., 79 pp.
II. Loi de la numismatique musulmane. Classement par séries et par ordre de poids des monnaies arabes du Cabinet des médailles de Paris. Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1898, 2 ff.n.ch., VIII pp., 48 pp.
At the head of each fascicle, an autograph presentation inscription from Christophe-Edouard Mauss to the archaeologist Alban-Emmanuel Guillaume-Rey (1837–1916).
First edition illustrated with a copper-engraved plate (showing some dampstains) from the second part of this brief communication, which served as an invitation to the public meeting of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow.
According to the CCF, only the Natural History Museum holds all three parts, published respectively in 1809, 1810, and 1811.
Very rare copy preserved in its original stitched wrappers with the printed pink cover.
Covers slightly discoloured and foxed at the margins, two dampstains affecting the lower edge throughout. Manuscript notes at the head of the front wrapper identifying the author and title.
The Saxon naturalist Fischer von Waldheim (1771–1853) was, in 1805, the founder of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow, whose aim was to promote the study of natural history in Russia—a society still active today under a different name.
He worked across all fields of natural history, carrying out extensive research on the classification of invertebrates, and published Entomographia Imperii Rossici, issued between 1820 and 1851.
He also studied fossils in the region of Moscow, as well as molluscs and other marine organisms.
Copy from the library of the French naturalist André-Constant Duméril (1774–1860), with his handwritten ex-libris at the lower right corner of the front cover.
Rare first edition (cf. Caillet 3017).
Full porphyry calf binding, smooth spine decorated in the grotesque style, small losses and rubbing at the foot of the spine, tan calf title label with a small loss and restoration, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, gilt rolls on the caps partially faded, marbled edges, contemporary binding.
An interesting dissertation written by President de Brosses (1709–1777) for the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, “on ancient myths, theurgy, magic, and secret cults.”
First edition, one of 160 hors commerce copies on Lana vellum, ours being one of 60 hors commerce copies, the only deluxe issue.
Half long-grain black morocco binding, smooth spine lettered with the author’s name, title, date, and the palladium inscription “EX. JOSEPH KESSEL 1958”, wood-patterned paper boards, grey endpapers and pastedowns, wrappers and spine preserved, binding signed by Thomas Boichot.
Some foxing, mainly affecting the wrappers and the first and last leaves.
Exceptional and moving signed autograph presentation from Maurice Druon to Joseph Kessel: "A toi mon grand Jef, cet Alexandre le grand né lui aussi sous le signe du Lion en même temps que du Bélier et que tu as aidé de tes conseils et de ton exemple en t'embrassant très fort. Maurice Juin 58"
First illustrated edition, with four folding plates bound at the end of the volume (cf. Tailliart 1979).
Contemporary half green calf binding, flat spine faded and yellowed, decorated with a gilt cartouche and ornamental tooling at head and tail, caps trimmed, joints fragile, marbled paper boards, hand-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, sprinkled edges, period binding.
Some foxing.
In fact, this pamphlet was intended as the first of a series, hence the general title; however, only this installment was ever published. The secondary title specifies the subject of the volume: "Relation d'une excursion de Bône à Guelma et à Constantine, par sir Grenville Temple et le chevalier Falbe, délégués de la société établie à Paris pour l'exploration de Carthage. Premier fascicule de l'ouvrage, accompagné d'un recueil d'inscriptions et de quatre planches représentant des monumens antiques, des mosaïques et des peintures à fresque découvertes à Carthage."
The two archaeologists had in fact accompanied the French divisions during the second expedition to Constantine, and their account combines scholarly and military perspectives, characteristic of the early period of French colonization in Algeria.
Provenance: Copy from Honoré-Théodoric d'Albert, 8th Duke of Luynes (1802–1867), with the bookplate of the Château de Dampierre affixed to a pastedown.
First edition, no deluxe copies printed.
A pleasant copy.
Inscribed and signed by Yves Coppens to Emile Noël.
Partly original edition, expanded with a preface and entirely unpublished fragments.
Bound in contemporary half black shagreen, spines with five raised bands decorated with gilt garlands, gilt dates at the foot, marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
Some foxing, mainly at the beginning and end of the volumes.
Complete with the folding table bound at the beginning of the second volume.
First edition, printed in a very small number of copies, of this extract from the Revue archéologique.
The booklet is illustrated with several figures in the text and, at the beginning of the volume, a full-page plate.
Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau (1846-1923), orientalist and archaeologist, made major archaeological discoveries in Palestine, where he had resided since 1867 as dragoman-chancellor at the French consulate. Appointed consul in Jaffa in 1881, he accepted a mission on the Egyptian coast east of the Nile, in Philistia, Phoenicia and Palestine; he published the results in the Archives des missions scientifiques.
Until his death, he pursued a dual career as diplomat and archaeologist. Clermont-Ganneau also unmasked numerous archaeological forgeries.
Precious autograph presentation inscription from Charles Clermont-Ganneau to Viscount Charles-Jean-Melchior de Vogüé (1829-1916), himself both archaeologist and diplomat.
First edition adorned with numerous copper-engraved reproductions of medals and coins distributed across 4 plates outside the text, together with 19 vignettes within the text.
Half blue sheep binding with corners, unlettered spine with five raised bands, moiré-patterned paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, covers preserved, front cover marginally soiled, modern binding.
Rare collection of twelve letters focused on coinage.
The Lorrain scholar Nicolas-Damas Marchant (1767-1833) was a military physician, numismatist, and also served as mayor of Metz from 1 November 1805 to 6 May 1815, spanning almost the entire Imperial period.
First edition, one of the press copies.
Half brown shagreen binding, smooth spine with gilt floral panels, gilt initials C.T. at foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, covers preserved, gilt edges, one upper corner slightly rubbed, binding dating from some years later.
Inscribed by Charles Terrasse (son of Claude) in ink at the head of a flyleaf.
Discreet restorations to the joints.
Precious presentation copy signed and inscribed by Alfred Jarry: "A Claude Terrasse son admirateur et son ami. Alf. Jarry" [his admirer and friend]
First edition and definitive and posthumous edition, arranged in strict chronological order, of a very rare iconographic series whose publication had begun as early as 1806 in somewhat disorderly instalments, but was never completed (only 49 instalments had appeared at the author’s death).
Cf Brunet V, 1453.
Work illustrated with 300 plates: lithographed and watercoloured title-frontispiece and 149 engraved plates, most finely hand-coloured, for the first volume; 150 plates for the second.
Contemporary bindings in half cherry-red morocco-grained shagreen with corners, spines with five raised bands decorated with blind fillets and panels, some minor rubbing to spines and joints, one joint of volume 1 split at foot, double blind fillet border on marbled paper boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, bindings of the period.
Pleasing copy, complete with its 300 plates.
First edition, printed in 500 numbered copies, of this splendid archaeological album featuring 78 in-text illustrations and 13 full-page plates with tissue guards (including 7 double-page or folding plates).
Text by Henri Lechat.
Publisher’s Bradel binding in full forest green cloth, smooth spine, headcaps slightly crushed, one joint split at head, spine and boards ruled in ochre, corners slightly rubbed, bookplate affixed to the front pastedown.
Copy from the library of industrialist Anatole Descamps (1833–1907), with engraved ex-libris by Devambez mounted on the pastedown.
A handsome copy.
First edition, illustrated with 11 double-page folio plates, including 2 plans printed on tracing paper. (Not listed in Hage Chahine.)
The text fascicle is in wrappers and the suite of plates is loose, both housed in the publisher’s original black cloth-backed portfolio with corners, flat spine without lettering, title label centered on the upper board, sand-colored boards showing some stains and scuff marks, with flaps and ties.
On the inside flap of the publisher’s portfolio, autograph inscription signed by Henri Chevrier to Pierre Glénat: "... dans l'espoir de faire un jour sa connaissance sous le soleil der Thèbes..."
First edition illustrated with 81 engraved plates, drawn by Antoine-Marie Chenavard and engraved on steel by various artists, comprising: a route map, a plan of Athens, and 79 plates numbered I to LXXV, including plates XXVIIIbis, XLVIIIbis (these two not listed in the table), LVIbis, and LVIIbis.
Cf. Blackmer 334. Atabey 230. Brunet II, 1831.
Each plate is accompanied by a leaf of explanatory text.
Plates LIX and LX are transposed in this copy.
Bound in modern half green sheep with corners, spine with four raised bands decorated with black fillets, black sheep lettering-piece and author’s name, sides covered in almond-green felted paper, a scratch to the lower cover.
The leaves are mounted on cloth guards, the preliminary leaves with some marginal soiling, a few light dampstains in the margins of certain pages, all leaves with marginal sunning.
First edition, only two copies listed in the CCF (Archives nationales, Arras).
Spine split with some losses.
Complete with the two successive reports (1 February 1862; 6 June 1863).
First edition, one of 100 numbered copies on alfa, the only grands papiers (deluxe copies) after 5 pur-fil paper.
Bound in half green morocco, paste paper boards, marbled paper endpapers, wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt, contemporary binding signed Lucie Weill.
Skilful and discreet repair to the top of a joint.
Illustrated with 6 vignettes by André Derain.
Handsome inscription signed by Antonin Artaud: “à Alice & à Carlo Rim que j'aime beaucoup parce que j'aime dans la vie tout ce qui est nature, franc et sans fard et la vie d'Héliogabale aussi est franche et sans fard et dans la ligne de la grande Nature. Antonin Artaud leur ami.” (“To Alice & Carlo Rim whom I love very much because I love in life all that is nature, frank and unvarnished and the life of Elagabalus is also frank and unvarnished and in line with the great Nature. Antonin Artaud their friend.”)
Very rare first edition.
Some light foxing.
Contemporary 19th-century modest half-grained cloth binding, spine faded, marbled paper boards with surface abrasions, yellow endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges.
Sole edition, uncommon, of this vindication by Jacob Spon (1647-1685) concerning his major travel account of the Levant (Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce et du Levant, fait aux années 1675 & 1676), published in 1678.
First edition, one of 15 numbered copies on Japan paper, the only deluxe issue.
Illustrated with 121 wood engravings and a folding coloured map.
Bound in modern half black oasis, flat spine decorated with double gilt fillets, brown oasis lettering-piece, marbled paper boards, endpapers and pastedowns of marbled paper, lower cover preserved and mounted on a tab.
First edition printed in 130 copies, all nominative and numbered, on Rives vellum.
Full chocolate-brown morocco binding, spine with four double raised bands framed by black fillets extending onto the covers, gilt date at foot, gilt rolls on the caps, endpapers and pastedowns of hand-made paper, quintuple gilt fillet borders on the pastedowns, double gilt fillets on the board edges, original wrappers and spine preserved, top edge gilt.
Illustrated with a frontispiece, 15 plates and 6 vignettes by Georges Leroux engraved on copper by Raoul Serres.
This copy is supplemented, at the end of the volume, with a suite of the 22 illustrations together with the printed menu for the dinner of 30 June 1930 of the Société bibliophilique des "Cent centraux bibliophiles".
In addition, the work includes, mounted on a tab, four original preparatory sketches in black pencil and, following them, an original drawing by Georges Leroux, dated, signed, and executed for the representation of the menu of the dinner of 30 June 1930 held by the "Cent centraux bibliophiles".
Manuscript signatures of Rosny aîné and Raoul Serres on the verso of the original menu drawing.
A very handsome copy accompanied by five original drawings by Georges Leroux, finely bound in full morocco.
First edition of this fine collection comprising 72 numbered copper-engraved plates. (cf. Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung Berlin, 2744. Brunet, V, 199 lists the author's name as Scheult).
Contemporary half calf binding with vellum-tipped corners, recently rebacked with a smooth spine decorated with gilt ornamental rolls and fleurons, olive green morocco label. Some rubbing to the spine, marbled paper-covered boards.
Scattered foxing, light dampstain to the upper outer corner of most leaves.
First edition, illustrated with 11 lithographed plates by Théodule Devéria and printed by Kaeppelin.
Some occasional foxing.
Rare.
First edition of this rare album illustrated with 15 line-engraved plates, each protected by a tissue guard and accompanied by a caption leaf, including a reproduction of the author's portrait drawn by Ingres in Rome in 1818.
Publisher's original full grey boards, flat spine without lettering, some rubbing, blind-ruled borders on covers, a scratch to the foot of the upper cover, central title, corners rubbed.
Some foxing.
Inscribed by Antoine-Marie Chenavard to his friend Antonin L., with the author's signed presentation note.
First edition, cf. Blackmer 133. Not in Atabey.
Contemporary romantic binding in navy-blue half sheep, spine gilt with decorative romantic tools, gilt rolls (partly faded) at head and foot, gilt fillet framing the boards decorated in blind with romantic arabesques, gilt-stamped plaque of the "Lycée impérial du Mans" to upper board, some wear along board edges, endpapers and pastedowns of marbled paper, marbled edges, gilt tooling at head and foot of the boards’ edges mostly rubbed. A handsome romantic binding of the period.
A near-spotless copy, attractively preserved in a period romantic binding.
First edition describing 1,271 objects, illustrated with 3 full-page line-engraved plates.
Inscribed on the upper cover with a signed autograph presentation from François Lenormant to the eighth Duke of Luynes (1802–1867).
Minor foxing, light creasing to the upper cover.
First and only illustrated edition with 12 engraved plates on India paper, under serpents.
Restored spine with minor tears, slight marginal tears on the boards, a crease on the corner of the second board, otherwise in pleasant interior condition.
The eighth Duke of Luynes (1802-1867) gained a significant reputation as an archaeologist, numismatist, and art collector.
Fourth edition after the original of 1577 published in Paris by Nicolas Chesneau and the edition by Abel L'Angelier printed in 1584. It is identical to the 1612 edition by Artus Thomas d'Embry, the first to contain engravings and to offer the four final texts. It is illustrated with a large folding plan of Constantinople, a double plate captioned « Portraict de l'Armée de l'Empereur Turc rangée en Bataille », 17 plates for the prophetic tableaux, 62 full-page engravings representing the different inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire (men and women) and 27 plates of portraits of Turkish personalities. Repeated title-frontispiece. Title pages in red and black.
Contemporary full brown calf bindings, slightly dissimilar, spines with six raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons and compartments. One headcap and certain corners restored. Some worming without loss of letters to the first volume, one joint cracked at foot of volume I, last leaf of table in volume I remounted with some paper losses filled without affecting the text, otherwise a good copy.
This important collective work is composed as follows :
Volume I :
Histoire des Turcs by Chalcondyle Athénien, translated by Thomas Artus and Blaise de Vigenère
Volume II :
continuation and end of l'Histoire des Turcs by François-Eudes Mezeray
Histoire générale du Serrail by Michel Baudier
Les Annales des Sultans
Plusieurs descriptions des accoustremens des Turcs
Tableaux prophétiques des Empereurs Sévère et Léon by Artus Thomas
Illustrations de Blaise de Vigenère bourbonnois, sur l'Histoire de Chalcondile athénien
New edition printed in 55 copies only (see publisher's foreword).
Only one copy of this edition listed in the CCF (BnF).
Contemporary temporary binding in full cherry paper boards, flat spine without lettering, minor rubbing to the binding.
Foxing, restorations to the head and tail of the spine, lower corners worn, a dampstain to the lower outer corner of the final leaves.
The text of Horace is in Latin only.
This rare folio edition was preceded in 1815 and 1818 by two small-format printings intended for student use.
The aim was to bring together in a single small volume the two principal sources of taste in versification, as upheld by classical pedagogy.
First edition illustrated with four plates of medals and one folding map with hand-colored outlines.
Contemporary half chocolate-brown sheep bindings, smooth spines slightly faded and decorated with triple gilt fillets, gilt letter "N" at foot of spines, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges.
Minor rubbing to spines, occasional foxing.
A senior tax official, Baron de Nervo (1810–1897) authored several works on financial history, but was also an eclectic traveler: his account of a journey to Sicily undertaken in 1833 is decidedly uncommon.
First edition, illustrated with a portrait of the author after Sir Thomas Lawrence in the text volume, and, in the atlas volume, with 1 engraved map (numbered 1) and 74 lithographed plates (numbered 2 to 75; plate 27 misnumbered 17), including 8 hand-coloured plates: plates 28 (Fresco of Dieudonné de Gozon), 41 (Tomb of Fabrice Caretti), and 61 to 66 (Frescoes from the crypts of Our Lady of Philerme).
See Atabey 1056. Blackmer 1450. Loukia Droulia 1474. Weber, I, 163.
Text volume bound in contemporary green half shagreen, spine with four raised bands adorned with gilt garlands and floral tools, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, rubbed corners; atlas volume in contemporary red half calf with corners, flat spine with gilt fillets, rubbed, marbled paper boards with scratches, some wear to edges and corners.
Some foxing, stains at foot of plate no. 10 in the atlas, and minor foxing on some other engravings.
Brunet, IV, 1415: "Ouvrage curieux et dont les planches sont fort belles".
The lithographs, after drawings by Witdoeck, depict the coastlines of the island of Rhodes, the harbour, fortifications, and principal buildings and monuments, some in ruins: the gates of Saint Catherine, Saint Paul and Saint John, the site and reconstruction of the Colossus, the interior of the palace, Fort Saint Nicholas, Garden of Auvergne, Street of the Knights, tomb of Robert de Julliac, castellany, convent, Lodge of Saint John, priories of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and England, Church of Saint Mark, bishop's palace, façade and interior of Saint Stephen, Admiralty, watchtower of the Knights, Church of Our Lady of Philerme with its frescoes, etc. After studying at the University of Louvain, Bernard Eugène Antoine Rottiers (Antwerp, 1771 – Brussels, 1858) joined the Dutch army in 1789. He fought at the Battle of Jemappes and sailed to England in 1795 with Stadtholder William V. He then served in the British army before leaving for Russia, where he joined the Georgian army. Promoted to colonel, he later returned to the Netherlands. A man of letters and archaeologist, he was entrusted in 1825 with a scientific mission to the Levant: "In January 1826, I departed with one of my sons and my painter, Mr. P.-J. Witdoeck. After stopping in Santorini, we landed in Rhodes, and barely arrived, we began our work. It was as dangerous as it was laborious. The Turks had never permitted anyone, until us, to draw the monuments of the island, especially the interiors of churches and other buildings... These dangers recurred everywhere. We had to brave them again for the drawings of the fortifications, the harbour, the tombs. But the goal was well worth the risk to attain it..." (pp. 15–16).
Rare work.
First edition of this work published "by order of His Majesty the Emperor and under the supervision of the Minister of Public Instruction" (cf. Leclerc (1878) 2283).
The first volume is illustrated with 70 colour-printed plates, all hors-texte.
Contemporary half red shagreen bindings, spine with four raised bands adorned with double gilt fillets and floral gilt tooling, gilt decorative rolls at head and foot, some rubbing, cloth boards with blind-stamped borders and central device, bindings of the period.
Some rubbing to boards, water stains to the upper corners affecting the first 10 leaves of both volumes, one quire in the first volume becoming loose, boards slightly discoloured or soiled along right margins, two corners lightly bumped.
Charles Étienne Brasseur, known as Brasseur de Bourbourg (1814–1874), a French missionary in Mexico and Central America, is regarded as one of the pioneers of pre-Columbian archaeology and history. Deeply engaged in the study of indigenous languages, he announced in 1863 that he had discovered the key to transcribing the Mayan script. He later presented his principles of decipherment in the present work on the Troano Manuscript.
Volume I contains an exposition of the Mayan graphic system, for which 600 characters were specially cast at the Imprimerie Impériale. It is followed by a facsimile of the Troano Manuscript reproduced in 70 lithochrome plates. Volume II features the grammar, chrestomathy, and a Maya–French–Spanish vocabulary.
Very scarce.
Very rare first edition of the French translation, partially unpublished, enriched with historical, geographical, and botanical notes, as well as a notice on ancient and modern Cyrenaica, the Kingdom of Fezzan, Timbuktu, the oasis of Siwah (the ancient Ammon Oasis and the Temple of Jupiter), the desert wind, the sacred ibis, the lotus, Egyptian papyrus, and the silphium so highly prized by the Ancients.
Illustrated with 8 plates and 1 folding map out of text.
Not recorded by Gay. Bourquelot V, 657 mentions only 7 plates and 1 map.
Contemporary-style binding in black half calf, flat spine decorated with double blind fillets, marbled paper boards, red edges. Modern binding signed Laurenchet.
Restorations to the half-title and title pages. Internally fresh and attractive.
The plates depict: Tantalus Aethiopicus (Ibis) – Mus Gerboa – Musa Paradisiaca – Desert Grasshopper – Bedouin Arab Encampment – View of a section of the Necropolis of Cyrene – Moorish dwelling in Dernah – Lotus branch in bloom – Papyrus Egyptiaca – Map of Cyrenaica to accompany the advance of the Tripolitanian army.
First edition, printed in a small number of copies on laid paper, extracted from the Journal asiatique; a single copy recorded in the CCF (Strasbourg).
Rare copy preserved in its original blue paper wrappers, as issued.
Traces of a label on the left margin of the front cover, a pleasing copy overall.
Inscribed by Giovanni Antonio Arri on the upper cover to archaeologist Désiré Raoul-Rochette (1789–1854), then a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Rare first edition, privately printed in small numbers, of this offprint from the Recueil des notices et mémoires de la Société archéologique de Constantine, vol. XXIV.
Only two copies recorded in the French collective catalogue (BnF and Lyon).
Vertical crease visible throughout the booklet.
Preserved in its original grey paper wrappers, without lettering, with the title and author's name handwritten in pencil.
A member of the Congregation of the White Fathers, particularly active in North Africa, Alfred-Louis Delattre (1850–1932) was first sent as a missionary to Algeria, later becoming chaplain of the Saint-Louis Church in Carthage, and eventually curator of the archaeological museum in Algiers.
Based on the Byrsa Hill in Carthage, he devoted over fifty years of his life to the exploration of the Carthaginian archaeological site, focusing especially on necropolises and early Christian basilicas. Inscribed, dated and signed by Alfred-Louis Delattre at the head of the first page of text.
First edition of this occasional text, illustrated with 4 plates outside the text.
Spine faintly faded, a rare and attractive copy.
Archbishop of Algiers from 1867, Charles Lavigerie (1825–1892) would become in 1884 Primate of Africa through his exceptional accumulation of titles, including the restored See of Carthage.
He took an early interest in the excavations of the Carthage site.
First edition of the bilingual Greek-Latin text of Iamblichus' Life of Pythagoras by Ludolf Küster from the manuscript held at the Laurentian Library. The facing Latin translation is the work of Frédéric Ulrich Obrecht and Konrad Rittershausen. Bound at the end is Porphyry’s Life of Pythagoras.
Illustrated with a large frontispiece portrait of Pythagoras, based on a coin from the collection of Fulvio Orsini.
Contemporary Dutch gilt-panelled vellum boards, spine with 5 raised bands and gilt ornaments with the arms of the city of Amsterdam, large gilt arms of the city of Amsterdam on each board within double gilt floral borders around sides both with incorporated coat of arms of Amsterdam within vegetal ornaments, armorial corner ornaments, speckled edges. Vellum darkened, a 2.5 cm split to the middle of the upper joint, one abrasion and a pale mark to the upper cover, some gilt tooling partially faded,traces of ties, scattered foxing.
Magnificent copy of the Neoplatonist biographies of Pythagoras by Iamblichus and Porphyry, with the arms of the city of Amsterdam featuring the Stedemaagd, the allegorical female figure of the city flanked by cherubs.
First edition of both these rare fascicules; the first is illustrated with three folding plates at the end of the volume, the second with in-text illustrations.
Contemporary half bottle-green calf binding, smooth spine gilt with fillets and dotted rolls, as well as black fillets, some minor rubbing to joints, headcap worn, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges.
One of only three known contributions to the nascent field of Assyriology by the Austrian numismatist and traveller Isidore Löwenstern (1810–1858), who served as Danish consul in Constantinople.
Bound with, by the same author: Exposé des éléments constitutifs du système de la troisième écriture cunéiforme de Persépolis. Paris-Leipzig, Adolphe Franck, 1847, 101 pp., in-text illustrations. Copy from the library of the renowned archaeologist Honoré-Théodore, 8th Duke of Luynes (1803–1867), with his ex-libris vignette from the Château de Dampierre pasted to a pastedown.
Composite copy: the first volume corresponds to the second American edition, which is partially original (with the shortened title Incidents of Travel in Yucatan), while the second is the first edition (with the full title); the text of the first volume being expanded compared to the 1841 edition. This title, originally printed in 15,000 copies, was a tremendous success and saw numerous reprints between 1841 and the author’s death in 1852 (cf. Sabin 91 297 and 91 299).
Illustrated with 96 engravings distributed as follows: 54 illustrations (some full-page in-text), including 21 plates out of text (among them a folding map and a folding frontispiece) for the first volume; for the second: 42 out-of-text plates, including 2 double-page spreads.
Contemporary early 20th-century bindings in black half shagreen, spines with five raised bands framed by blind tooling, minor rubbing to spines, slight discoloration to outer margins of boards, marbled paper-covered boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, gilt top edges.
This work holds a major place in American travel literature: it marked the public’s first real encounter with the vestiges of Maya civilization. But it is not solely archaeological in focus: as a travel narrative, highly fashionable at the time, it blends anecdotes, character portraits, detailed descriptions of visited sites, extensive commentary on the political context and the civil war then tearing Central America apart, as well as the pioneering archaeological component, which in fact constitutes only about one-third of the work.
Born into a wealthy New York family, John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852) undertook two expeditions to Central America following his 1836 meeting with the draughtsman Frederick Catherwood (1799–1854). Upon the death of the United States envoy to the Federation of Central America, Stephens leveraged his political connections to obtain a diplomatic mission to the region from President Van Buren. Central America at that time was in complete turmoil: a civil war raged between the federal government and the various states within the Federation. Stephens hoped that his diplomatic passport would afford him some protection during the journey. On 3 October 1839, Stephens and Catherwood sailed from British territory toward Belize, beginning a journey of several months that would take them to Copán, Quiriguá, Toniná, Palenque, and finally Uxmal. The second expedition, undertaken in October 1842 following the phenomenal success of their first publication, took the pair from Uxmal to Tulum, via Sayil, Labná, Kabah, and Chichén Itzá, covering over forty Maya sites. The text of this second edition reflects the added knowledge gained during this follow-up expedition.
Provenance: From the library of explorer and archaeologist Alexis-Antoine-Maurice de Périgny (1877–1935), with his pictorial bookplate mounted on the front endpapers.
De Périgny’s principal expeditions focused specifically on Mexico and Central America (Guatemala, Costa Rica, 1909–1913). He himself published Le Yucatan inconnu (1908) on the region.
First edition (cf. Loukia Droulia 1817, Contominas 595, Blackmer 1372. Not in Atabey.)
Contemporary half blond calf, spine with five false raised bands adorned with gilt garlands, gilt tooling in compartments and blind fillets, gilt rolls at head and foot, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges.
Scattered foxing.
Before becoming the well-known historian and committed republican, Edgar Quinet (1803–1875) was part of the short-lived scientific commission of the Morea in 1829.
This volume records his impressions, with the second part titled De la Nature et de l'Histoire dans leurs rapports avec les Traditions Religieuses et Epiques.
Provenance: Library stamp of François Guizot on the half-title. Guizot himself, who in 1846 expelled Quinet from the Collège de France—along with his friend Michelet—for their anti-clerical stance.
Later belonged to Guizot’s descendant Robert de Witt, who signed and stamped the first flyleaf on March 11, 1875.
First edition on regular paper.
Spine with some faint dampstains, marginal foxing to the covers, paper toned as usual.
Inscribed and signed by Marguerite Yourcenar: "A madame Joly-Segalen hommage de l'auteur, Marguerite Yourcenar. Les vivants vont vite."
First edition, one of 115 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe copies aside from 35 on pure thread.
Two small spots of foxing on the front cover, a discreet crease, a handsome copy as issued.
Rare and highly sought after in deluxe paper.
First edition of the French translation, illustrated with a lithographed frontispiece portrait, six engraved plates by Ambroise Tardieu, and a large folding map, all outside the text (cf. Schwab, p.48, no. 360).
Some foxing, mainly affecting the beginnings and ends of the volumes, otherwise a handsome and attractively bound copy.
Contemporary binding in half aubergine shagreen, spines slightly faded, with five raised bands, decorated with black fillets and gilt floral tools, gilt dates at foot, marbled paper-covered boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges, a few surface abrasions.
The original edition, A History of Persia, was first published in 1815.
A major work on Persia, in which the author "carefully consulted all European authors of note who had written on the history and literature of Eastern peoples", and gathered information from various specialists and diplomats.
A Scotsman in the service of the East India Company, John Malcolm (1769–1833) personally led two missions to Persia, assisted by capable officers such as Captains Grant and Christie, Lieutenant Pottinger, Major Pasley, Captains Frédéric and Josias Stewart, John Briggs, John M'Donald Kinnier, Messrs. Henry Ellis, Andrew Jukes, and others.
First edition of the French translation of this remarkable study originally published in Vienna in the *Mines de l'Orient*.
The work, translated and enriched with observations and explanatory notes, followed by a dissertation on the location of the Pallacopas by J. Raimond, is illustrated with six folding plates at the end (rather than four, as stated on the title page).
Contemporary binding in green half sheep, spine slightly faded, gilt-stamped with a sphinx, gilt title, cat's-eye marbled paper-covered boards, comb-marbled endpapers and pastedowns, modern binding.
Some foxing, mainly affecting the opening leaves.
Rich provides "une description très détaillée de toutes les ruines et de tous les tertres [...] qui s'étendent à une grande distance sur les deux rives de l'Euphrate" (Michaud).
His work on Babylon is regarded as the starting point of Mesopotamian archaeology (Chahine, 4032).
First edition, with no copies printed on deluxe paper.
A pleasing copy.
Signed autograph inscription from Yves Coppens to Emile Noël.
First edition, one of the review copies.
A handsome copy, complete with the wraparound band: "Les rois mages racontés par Michel Tournier".
Inscribed and signed by Michel Tournier to the Belgian literary critic Pol Vandromme: "Pour Pol Vandromme en toute amitié."
The rare first edition, illustrated with 100 in-text figures of medals, each showing obverse and reverse. Of the three parts that were to appear successively, only this one was published, Le Menestrier's death having put an end to this work. The work was not even put on sale; the author only distributed a few copies around him. It is therefore very rare to come across this edition. The 1642 edition entitled Medales illustrées des anciens Empereurs et Impératrices de Rome is the same work to which the publisher Paillot added the Médailles des impératrices from a manuscript he had purchased from the heirs. Jean-Baptiste Le Menestrier, antiquarian, should not be confused with the heraldist Claude François Menestrier, who died in 1704.
Half blonde calf binding ca 1820. Smooth spine decorated with a fleuron and a long tool, fillets and roulettes. Navy blue calf title label. Surface abrasion and a small lack along the upper joint.
Manuscript ownership inscription on title page: Mgr. de Beauveau, archevêque de Narbonne.
The book catalogs the medals of the emperors of Rome.
Complete copy comprising two translations by Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt, whose works are commonly known as "belles infidèles" (beautiful but unfaithful translations). Between 1662 and 1795, no other translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War was published. The privilege granted to the bookseller Clousier in 1712 was shared among several booksellers, including Michel-Étienne David, Nicolas Gosselin, and Jean-Geoffroy Nyon.
Contemporary full brown calf, gilt spines with five raised bands and four compartments decorated with plain and dotted fillets enclosing fleuron tools, tan morocco lettering-pieces, numbering-pieces within gilt borders, gilt rolls to board edges, red speckled edges, marbled pastedowns and endpapers.
Light scratches and rubbing to boards, corners worn. Old bookplate mark on the first pastedown of the second volume.
Marginal worm trail in the first volume, not affecting text, overall some slight foxing.
First edition.
Minor foxing, a pleasing copy.
The Roman jeweller Alessandro Castellani (1823–1883) was also an enlightened collector of ancient and medieval artefacts, from which he sometimes drew inspiration for his jewellery designs.
Jean de Witte (1808–1889), archaeologist and numismatist, became a member of the Institut in 1886.
First edition (only three copies recorded in the CCFr: BnF, Lyon and Montpellier).
Blank spine split with small losses, a few instances of foxing.
The sole edition of this small, learned and appealing dissertation.
Paul Saint-Olive (1799–1879), engraver and contributor to the Revue du Lyonnais, was a tireless seeker of curiosities (cf. Vingtrinier (Aimé): Paul Saint-Olive, archéologue lyonnais, Lyon, 1877).
Signed autograph inscription by Paul Saint-Olive to Doctor Girard on the inside of the upper cover.
New edition of the French translation of this work, originally published in 1731 in two quarto volumes (see Brunet IV, 456).
This edition is illustrated with 8 folding plates, comprising 3 maps and 5 views.
Contemporary full marbled tan calf bindings, smooth spines richly decorated with gilt floral panels, bronze calf lettering- and volume-pieces, small wormholes to the spines, gilt rolls to the caps, single blind fillet framing the boards, marbled endpapers, gilt fillets to the board edges, red edges, bindings of the period.
Repairs to the joints, a few occasional spots of foxing.
The translator of this French version, written "en un style aisé, clair, même élégant", was Abbé Nicolas Gédoyn [Oréans, 1667 near Beaugency, 1744], known both for his translations and his scholarly works.
Born into an old and distinguished family of the Orléanais, he studied at the Jesuit college and entered the Society of Jesus as a novice in 1684.
He subsequently taught humanities and rhetoric at the college of Blois
Owing to ill health he left the order and entered the secular clergy. He settled in Paris, where in 1701 he was appointed canon of the Sainte-Chapelle.
Through his elderly kinswoman Ninon de Lenclos he became friendly with M. Arouet, the father of Voltaire, and discovered the future great writer in his earliest attempts. Appointed Abbé of Sainte-Sauve de Montreuil (diocese of Amiens), he resigned this benefice in favour of the abbey of Notre-Dame de Beaugency.
Very rare fully mimeographed first edition of this course prepared for officers of the French Army of the Levant, issued locally under the French Mandate in Syria and Lebanon.
No copy recorded in the CCF. Not in Hage Chahine.
Minor marginal tears to the wrappers, a manuscript ex-libris on the upper wrapper, and a hole in the lower wrapper also affecting the final page but not the text.
The Belgian Jesuit and orientalist Henri Lammens (1862–1937) spent almost his entire life in Beirut; he was the first to apply to the study of the origins of Islam a critical method as rigorous as that used for any historical subject, which earned him much hostility and repeated cautions from his superiors.
As a result, his major biography of Muhammad, completed as early as 1914, remained in manuscript.
First edition.
Minor losses at head and foot of the spine, which is slightly sunned; a few small spots of foxing.
Alongside a distinguished career in the colonial troops, in Senegal and Indochina, General Henri Frey (1847–1932) also cultivated literary and scholarly ambitions. This unusual thesis was, of course, neither substantiated nor taken up subsequently …
On the upper margin of the half-title, an autograph inscription by Henri Frey to Commandant Étienne Lunet de Lajonquières [here spelled Jonquières] (1861–1933), of the Marine Infantry, archaeologist and ethnographer, and also a key figure in the organisation of the preservation of Historical Monuments in Indochina.
Second edition (cf. Quérard I, 529: records “Broussonnet”. Colas 457.)
Reflections on fashion and elegant dress in antiquity; the first edition, published in 1799, appeared under the name of one of the author’s pupils.
Rare copy preserved in the original wrappers.
Rare first edition, printed in small numbers, of this Extrait du Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, 2e série, tome XI, illustrated with two folding plates showing topographical cross-sections of various valleys, including that of the Jordan (cf. Hage Chahine, 471; Numa Broc, Asie, pp. 28–29).
Half tan calf, smooth spine gilt-ruled and tooled, some rubbing to the spine, one joint restored at the head, green morocco lettering-piece, marbled boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, red edges; a contemporary binding.
An orientalist and archaeologist, the Comte de Bertou explored Palestine in 1838 with the mission of verifying the hypothesis of an ancient outflow from the Dead Sea towards the Red Sea. Leaving Beirut on 2 March 1838, he reached Jerusalem via Nazareth and established the altitude of Jericho at –273 m and that of the Dead Sea at –406 m.
He then went on to Hebron and, despite the hostility of the Arab tribes, undertook to follow the depression linking the Asphaltite Lake with Aqaba. Bertou reached it on 8 April and, despite the destruction of his barometer, was able to confirm that the level of the Dead Sea lay well below that of the Red Sea. He returned to Beirut in May 1838 after visiting Petra and its celebrated monuments (cf. Numa Broc).
First edition of this monograph devoted to Punic inscriptions discovered in Tunis and its surrounding area.
Small marginal tears to the spine and boards, which also show some light spotting.
Abbé Bargès (1810–1896), a native of Auriol, pursued an unusual career grounded in his exceptional command of Oriental languages (Hebrew, Arabic), and specialised in epigraphy while also engaging with a wider range of disciplines.
The Phoenician world was of particular interest to him, as he long upheld the Punic origin of Marseilles, and he published six monographs on inscriptions in the Phoenician language between 1847 and 1888; the present work forms part of this cycle.
At the head of the upper cover, an autograph inscription signed by Abbé Bargès to the eighth Duke of Luynes (1803–1867), the celebrated archaeologist.
First edition, with three folding plates and numerous hieroglyphs in the text.
A copy preserved in its original wrappers with temporary green paper covers, a title label affixed at the head of the spine.
Occasional foxing.
The German traveller and Orientalist Julius von Klaproth (1783–1835), one of the foremost linguists of his time, devoted himself chiefly to the languages of Asia, which he spoke almost all.
In this vehement critique of Champollion, published six months after the latter’s untimely death, he seeks—though not entirely in good faith—to call into question the method and results of the scholar from Grenoble, disputing in particular the priority and the significance of his discovery.
Autograph letter dated and signed by Georges Dumézil to Thierry Maulnier—though not referred to by name—four pages on a bifolium written in blue ballpoint pen on stationery bearing the letterhead of the Académie française, discussing his recent work "Le dieu masqué".
Rust marks from a paperclip visible at the top of the leaves.
Georges Dumézil expresses agreement with the views of his fellow Immortal: "Je reconnais pour moi cet agnoticisme indulgent (156 - 787) ce scepticisme sans découragement dans son 'léger sourire' (324, - et la fin de 604, 611...) [...] Le Dieu masqué suppose un dieu, ou l'équivalent. Je pense moi, au conte d'Edgar Poe, 'Le spectre de la mort rouge' : quand on l'a dépouillé de ses voiles, démailloté, démasqué, il ne reste rien de palpable ni d'imaginable. Le mystère de son mouvement, de son être est néant. Et pourtant, il tue, donc il est."
The historian of religion continues, refining his line of thought: "Chez l'homme, le foisonnement des neurones, le langage qui en est sorti (voir 163, 172 et surtout 242, où vous rejoignez Hagège), commandent, réclament l'exercice, et tout s'ensuit. Et puis, il y a ce que j'ai envie d'appeler le besoin de confort, chaque individu est engagé pour une part minime, dans le mouvement d'évolution dont il est produit, et dont, pro parte nirili, sans en avoir connaissance, il prépare la suite le corps humain, (si des inventions à double effet lui en laissent le temps) travaille volens nolens pour on ne sait quoi, qui se réglera dans des centaines, des milliers de siècles." while also offering a few minor points of divergence.
He concludes his letter with this fine compliment: "Vous rejoignez sur ma tablette intime Marc Aurèle (en mieux habillé) et Sénèque (sans sa réthorique). J'attends le quatrième troupeau des vaches sacrées. Tel est, pour 1986, mon premier voeu..."
