Author: Saulcy, [L.] F. [J. C.] de
Title: Voyage autour de la Mer Morte et dans les terres bibliques exécuté de décembre 1850 à avril 1851. Relation de voyage; atlas. [Complete].
Description: Paris, Gide et J. Baudry, 1852-1853. In two text volumes and one atlas volume. 8vo (24.5 x 16.0 cm [text]). 1054 pp. [399; 655]). Folio/large 4to (31.0 x 23.7 cm [atlas]). 172 pp. [4, vii, 20, i-iv, 5-19; xxvi, 96]; 15 maps on 14 sheets (one double-sized); 61 (LVII; 4) lithographed plates (several tinted). Text in near contemporary uniform half calf over marbled boards. Spines with gilt bands and title; Atlas in contemporary half morocco over grained, cloth with gilt title on the front board and spine. Marbled endpapers. Original printed wrappers of the text volumes bound in. = Written by the French explorer and naturalist Louis Félicien "Felix" Joseph Caignart de Saulcy (1807-1880). "On his first trip to Palestine in 1850, searching for something of interest 'in a place fraught with danger', he toured the Dead Sea area, misidentified Sodom and Gomorrah, and sketched the first map of Masada. He discovered the Shihan Stele and identified Tell es-Sultan as the site of the ancient city of Jericho" (Wikipedia). In the front of the atlas volume are two scientific chapters, as follows: Catalogue des Plantes Observees en Syrie et en Palestine par MM. De Saulcy et Michon, redige par MM. E. Cosson et Kralik: vii, 20 pp.; and Catalogue des Especes d'insectes coléoptères recueillies par M. F. de Saulcy et redige par L. Reiche: iv, 5-19 pp. In the rear of the atlas volume is a third, much larger and illustrated chapter (half-title, title, xxvi, 96 pp.; four plates), on the molluscs collected during the expedition, written by the French malacologist Jules-René Bourguignat (1829-1892) before he gained notoriety for forming and leading the "Nouvelle école". All three bindings are similar, with their gilt bands and titles. Provenance: armorial bookplate of the Bibliothèque de Barante mounted on front pastedowns. Amable-Guillaume-Prosper Brugière, Baron de Barante (1782-1866), was a French historian, writer and politician who amassed a very large bibliophile library in his castle near Clermont-Ferrand. The French poet, Anatole France called him an "Homme de beaucoup de tact, de sens et de finesse". Slight wear to boards and spine ends; internally very good, clean, without foxing. A very good set indeed. Brunet, 20578; Cat. BM(NH), p. 1810 [1st English ed.]; Nissen ZBI, 449 [for Bourguignat].

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