PERNETY (Antoine-Joseph). Histoire d'un voyage aux isles Mal - Lot 102

PERNETY (Antoine-Joseph). Histoire d'un voyage aux isles Malouines fait en 1763 & 1764, avec des observations sur le détroit de Magellan. A Paris, chez Saillant et Nyon, 1770. 2 vol. in-8, IV-385 p. + 334 p., [1] f., pl., modern fawn half-basin, 5-ribbed spine, havana title-piece, gilded tomaison and fleuron, date stamped on tail, cold fillet on covers, untrimmed (spine slightly faded, loss of gilding on spine, soiling on leather, wetness on t.1, mold on standing of t.2, wetness on pl.). Expanded second edition of this travel report, written by Jean Baptiste Delisle de Sales, who added a number of developments on natural history. The first edition appeared in 1769 in Berlin, where the author was in charge of the library of Frederick II of Prussia. Pernety (1716-1796) was a curious character, originally a Benedictine of the Saint-Maur congregation, chaplain to the Bougainville expedition, who left the orders to devote himself to alchemy, and became an ardent promoter of Swedenborg's theories. The work is illustrated with 18 copper-engraved folding plates (nos. I-XVI, VIII bis and IX bis), including maps, plans, views and depictions of animals. (Sabin 60996; Chadenat 659).