Christophe Colomb

First illustrated edition with 5 chromolithographs, one color map, all pages within a wide engraved border featuring marine scenes, landscapes, monuments... The effect of these borders is quite extraordinary when one further considers that they are renewed on each page.
Publisher's binding in half red shagreen bound by Engel and richly decorated with two special plates, a repeated ornament at head and foot, scattered stars throughout and thick and thin fillets. Special gilt plate created by Souze, an anchor in the foreground, caravels on the sea and the setting sun in which the American continent appears. The same plate is found on the back without the title. Traces of rubbing at the lower edges on the covers and at the corners, as well as at the outer edges. Nevertheless a very handsome copy, with fine freshness, both external and internal.
The biography of Christopher Columbus (1856) by Count Roselly de Lorgues was significant in its time, elevating the navigator to the rank of Christian and Catholic hero, Léon Bloy would draw from it to write his own version of Columbus: Le révélateur du globe.