MONTÉMONT (Albert). - Lot 83

MONTÉMONT (Albert). Histoire universelle des voyages effectués par mer et par terre dans les cinq parties du monde, sur les divers points du globe, contenant la description des mœurs, coutumes, gouvernements, cultes, sciences et arts, industrie et commerce, productions naturelles et autres. Paris: Armand-Aubrée, [1833-1837]. - 46 volumes in-8, 204 x 126. Brown half calf, spine ribbed and decorated (Etard). Important work published by the literary scholar Albert Montémont (1788-1862). The collection is divided into six parts: world tour (volumes 1 to 21) and each of the five parts of the globe, namely Africa (volumes 22 to 30), Asia (31 to 37), America (38 to 42), Oceania (43) and Europe (44 to 46). Several relationships are translated here for the first time. Illustrated with 87 color plates depicting the various peoples described in the work. These plates are distributed throughout each volume from volume 16 onwards, except for volumes 23, 24 and 25. They are numbered from 1 to 90, and plates 43, 45 and 56 are missing. Copies including these plates, which are sometimes found bound in a separate album, indicate that they are from the first issue. Indeed, the bookseller Marescq acquired the remaining copies from the Armand-Aubrée collection and reissued the work with only 46 frontispiece portraits and 6 maps (cf. Bibliographie de la France, N° 28, July 9, 1842, page 3). These 6 maps are obviously only to be found in the second-issue copies; they do not appear in any of the first-issue copies we have been able to find in contemporary bindings. A fine copy in a strictly contemporary binding, signed by Étard, a Bayeux bookbinder. His signature appears at the bottom of each volume. Some wear to bindings. Volume 11 has a modern binding, almost identical to the others. Staining in several volumes, heavy in the first two. The title of volume 3 is missing. Some foxing.