STAUNTON (Georges Thomas). - Lot 90

STAUNTON (Georges Thomas). Ta-Tsing-Leu-Lée, or the fundamental laws or penal code of China, with the choice of supplementary statutes, originally printed and published in Peking, in the various successive Editions, under the sanction and by the authority of all the Ta-Tsing Emperors, composing the present Dynasty: translated from Chinese, and accompanied by an appendix containing authentic documents and some notes which clarify the text of this work. Paris : Lenormant, Gagliani, Laloy, 1812. - 2 volumes in-8, 196 x 125 : (3 ff.), lij, 455 pp, (1 f.) ; (2 ff.), 511 pp, (1 f.), 1 table. Basane racinée, gilt roulette on the boards, smooth spine decorated, marbled edges (period binding). First edition of the French translation by Marquis Félix Renouard de Sainte-Croix (1773-1840) of the Chinese legal code, or code of the Qing Empire, which was in force from 1644 to 1912. This code was composed of 436 sections divided into seven divisions: General Laws - Civil Laws - Fiscal Laws - Ritual Laws - Military Laws - Criminal Laws - Public Works Laws. The translation was made on the English edition given by George Thomas Staunton in 1810. The translator has added some additional notes. Precious copy of the naval officer Louis Dunoyer de Segonzac (1843-1912), father of the painter and draftsman André Dunoyer de Segonzac. He was notably an employee of the Chinese customs and the Fuzhou arsenal, as well as deputy director of the Chinese instruction mission in Europe. He was the author of a Study on the administrative organization of Tonkin and the protectorate countries published in 1886. The copy bears his bookplate and, on the first white endpaper of each volume, this ex-dono from the hand of Edgard Renouard de Sainte-Croix (1812-1893), grandson of the translator: "Given by the Marquis de Ste Croix to his nephew L. Dunoyer de Segonzac, grandson of the translator, at the time of his departure for China, on the La Place, in February 1865. Edgard de Renouard de Ste Croix. Restorations to the corners and to a spine. Small loss at one spine, loss at the head cover of the second volume. Some scattered foxing but not serious. Provenance: Louis Dunoyer de Segonzac, with bookplate and autograph ex-dono of Edgard Renouard de Sainte-Croix.