BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, Jean-Baptiste-G. - Lot 238

BORY DE SAINT-VINCENT, Jean-Baptiste-G. Voyage dans les quatre principales îles des mers d'Afrique, fait par ordre du gouvernement pendant les années neuf et dix de la République (1801 et 1802)... Collection de Planches. A Paris, chez F. Buisson, An XIII (1804). Small folio (33 x 24 cm), [2] ff. (title, table), 58 engraved plates. Nineteenth-century half tan basane (binding worn, boards detached, two 1st leaves and pl. X detached, some foxing, very light spotting, small tear on pl. IX, side margin of pl. XXXIV slightly short). Atlas only, including title page, table of plates and 58 large, mostly folding, copper engravings in black by Adam, Blondeau, Fortier, Dorgez and Tardieu, after drawings by Bory de Saint-Vincent. Printed on laid paper, sometimes thick. Bory de Saint-Vincent (1780-1846) was a naturalist on Baudin's second expedition to the Austral Lands. Le Géographe and Le Naturaliste set sail in 1800 and circumnavigated the coast of Africa, but during the stopover at Ile de France (now Mauritius), part of the crew abandoned the expedition due to disagreements with Baudin. For health reasons, Bory de Saint-Vincent remained in the Indian Ocean and visited the islands. Represents views of Tenerife, St. Helena and volcanoes, as well as natural history and botany subjects, a map of the seas of Africa, a physical map of the islands of France and Reunion, where in October 1801 he made the ascent and first general scientific description of the island's active volcano, Piton de la Fournaise. The map of La Réunion, dedicated to Marshal Berthier, then Minister of War, is highly accurate and probably the first map of the island in this format. The last plate, showing a view of the volcano on Reunion Island, was colored at the time. Leblond, Archives de la Réunion, 18, LEB91/1.