Voyage de Decouvertes Aux Terres Australes,
Peron, Francois.
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Book Id: 955
Description
Peron, Francois. Voyage de Decouvertes Aux Terres Australes, Execute par Ordre de sa Majeste l'Empereur et Roi, sur les Corvettes le Geographe, le Naturaliste, et la Goelette le Casuarina, pendant les Annees 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804 [Historique]. Paris 1807-16. The partie historique. 2 vols text 4to & atlas royal 4to, 2 vols. bound in 1 (as issued). First edition. Ferguson 449. (iv) xvi, 496 pp, (ii) (&) (xxxii) 472 pp, 3 plts. Atlas, 6pp, 41 plts [numbered 2-41 as issued] (&) 6 pp, 14 folding maps & plans. Text has some lt. preliminary foxing & lt. general browning. The atlas has been restored professionally. Uniformly bound in half calf, gilt spines, red & brown labels, marbled boards. A nice copy. In 1800, with Nicolas Baudin in command, the Geographe & the Naturaliste set sail for the South Seas. Freycinet was the expedition's cartographer, Peron the naturalist, Petit the portrait artist & Lesueur the topographical artist. They had instructions to make full examination of the Australian coasts & especially to explore the unknown southern coast. On the return voyage, Baudin died, leaving the disgruntled scientists Peron & Freycinet to prepare the narrative for publication. They ignored Baudin's contribution - his name does not appear on the title page. It was the enlightened attitude of the French towards explorations of this kind that they included in their crews the scientists & artists who would reveal to the world the society of the new races they encountered. The stipple engraved portraits, many in color, of the Australian aborigines & Timor natives are some of the most beautiful ever done. Examples of native artifacts, canoes, dwellings & music abound. Lesueur's panorama of Sydney is superb & the colored natural history plates of the kangaroo, wombat, platypus, emu etc, are exquisite. The large general map of Australia is the first detailed charting of the entire Aus. coast (Flinders' publication being delayed by his detention in Mauritius). Likewise, the map of Geographe Bay/Cape Naturaliste is the first published. The 1st edition also includes the important Swan River map, which does not appear in the 2nd edition. One of the best illustrated works of the time.
