FLACOURT (Étienne de). History of the Great Island of Madaga

lot/flacourt etienne de history of the great island of madaga lot 69 uKpeFtB 632802630 / For sale

lot/flacourt etienne de history of the great island of madaga lot 69 uKpeFtB 632802630

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lot/flacourt etienne de history of the great island of madaga lot 69 uKpeFtB 632802630

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FLACOURT (Étienne de). History of the Great Island of Madaga - Lot 69

FLACOURT (Étienne de). History of the Great Island of Madagascar. Troyes: Published by Nicolas Oudot; sold in Paris by the Widow of Pierre L'Amy, 1661. 2 parts in one in-4 volume, stiff vellum, covers and spine decorated with a geometric design painted in brown ink with a pen, featuring an eight-pointed star set against a background in a large circular medallion at the center, edges speckled with red (contemporary binding). Second edition, partly original, illustrated with 6 fold-out maps and plans, including a general map of the island of Madagascar, and 9 intaglio-engraved plates depicting the island’s inhabitants and their customs, as well as natural history subjects (botany and zoology). (Chadenat, no. 6281; Pritzel, no. 2929.) The first printed monograph on Madagascar. Étienne Bozet de Flacourt (1607–1660) had been appointed governor of the French colony of Fort-Dauphin in Madagascar to restore stability to the island. He held this position from 1648 to 1655. In his work, he describes the island’s socio-political and economic structure and provides the reader with information on its geography, natural history, and the customs and religious beliefs of its inhabitants. A highly desirable copy from the library of François-Nicolas Bédigis, bound in vellum decorated and painted by the author himself. A master calligrapher from Paris, François-Nicolas Bédigis (1738–1814) was the author of six works on the practice of an art he taught at the Royal Academy of Calligraphy. Only a small number of his unusual bindings, adorned with geometric motifs in ink, are known to exist (see the catalog of the Pierre Berès bookstore, *Six Centuries of Bookbindings*, nos. 88 and 89, for two comparable examples). The volume bears Bédigis’s bookplate signature on the upper inside cover (crossed out twice), and a note in his own hand: “A curious, instructive book.” It contains fifteen engraved plates, including both maps and prints. /. The copy subsequently belonged to Gaston de Roquemaurel (1804–1878), whose signature appears on the title page: this naval officer and explorer from Toulouse served notably as Dumont D’Urville’s second-in-command during the Astrolabe’s second circumnavigation (1837–1840). The four table sheets at the beginning of the second part are missing. Creases on the main map of the island; the last sheet is crumpled; faint water stain on the upper edge of the title page and the two following sheets. The quires are uniformly and slightly foxed. A tear, with no missing material, runs along the edge of two sheets (F2 and Kkk4). The decoration is slightly rubbed in places.

Estimate:£2,572.14

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