LEVAILLANT (François). - Lot 22

Lot n° 22
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LEVAILLANT (François). - Lot 22
LEVAILLANT (François). Mr. Le Vaillant’s Journey into the Interior of Africa, via the Cape of Good Hope, in the Years 1780, 81, 82, 83, 84, and 85. Paris: Leroy, 1790. — Second Journey into the Interior of Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, in the Years 1783, 84, and 85. Paris: H. J. Jansen et Compagnie, Year 3 of the Republic, One and Indivisible. — 2 works in 5 in-8 volumes, 199 x 123: frontispiece, xxiv, 383 pp., 5 plates; (1 f.), 403 pp., 6 plates (Voyage); (1 f.), xliv, 304 pp., (1 f.), 5 plates; 426 pp., (1 f.), 8 plates; (2 ff.), 525 pp., (3 ff.), 9 plates. Veal leather with grain, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, smooth decorated spine, yellow edges (Second Voyage) (contemporary binding). First edition of these two travel accounts. François Levaillant (1753–1824), a naturalist and traveler born in Paramaribo, Suriname (then Dutch Guiana), developed a passion for natural history at a very early age. Convinced that the Cape of Good Hope and southern Africa—regions of exceptional fertility—offered an ideal setting for his research, he undertook two major expeditions there. He brought back thousands of bird specimens unknown in Europe and conducted anthropological, ornithological, and zoological studies. Notably, he was the first to scientifically describe the giraffe, bringing back a carcass that was presented to Louis XVI. - The first book recounts his first journey (1780–1783), during which he explored the eastern Cape, observing landscapes and species then unknown in Europe. In it, he studied the Khoikhoi (Hottentots), describing their pastoral way of life, hunting techniques, language, and beliefs, as well as the Xhosa and the Bushmen. The second volume provides an account of his second journey from 1783 to 1785. This first journey is illustrated with a frontispiece and 11 plates depicting views and portraits of Hottentots and Xhosa, except for the last two, which depict a giraffe. - The second volume describes Levaillant’s second journey (1783–1785) in detail. In it, he depicts various peoples who are now extinct or little known: the Houzouanas, the Small and Great Namaquois, the Caminouquois, the Karaquois, the Kabobiquois, and the Gheyssiquois. The illustrations include 22 plates featuring landscapes, botany, wildlife, and portraits of the Houzouanas and Namaquois. In his book *Knowledge and Colonialism: Eighteenth-Century Travelers in South Africa*, on page 123, Siegfried Huigen writes that the “first account was probably edited by Casimir Varron (1761–1796), a Parisian man of letters, and the second by his father, who was born in France,” but that “since Le Vaillant’s personal travel journals have not been preserved, the actual influence of these editors on the texts remains uncertain.” The general map of Levaillant’s travels is missing. It had been published separately and, as a result, is almost never found included with the book. A very fine copy in a uniform binding of the period. Provenance: Dr. Robert Aubin, with bookplate.
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