Author

PALLAS, P[eter] S[imon].

Title

Voyages
en differentes provinces de l'Empire de Russie, et dans l'Asie septentrionale.

Published, Date

Demonville for Lagrange and Maradan, Paris,1788-93.

Description

Five text volumes 4to (27.2 x 20.5 cm) and one atlas volume folio (33 x 25.5 cm). Text: [4], xxxii, 773, [3] pp.; [4], 550, [2] pp.; [4], 491, [1] pp.; [4], 722, [2] pp.; [4], 559, [1] pp. Atlas: half-title, title, large folding map and 107 engraved plates including 9 maps (4 folding or double-page) by P. F. Tardieu, 77 of flora & fauna (22 folding or double-page), 9 of costumes and the rest of architectural designs, views and scenes, some by N. Thomas; slight occasional spotting. Contemporary full brown tree calf, three gilt rollworks to covers, spines richly gilt in compartments, gilt-lettered red morocco labels to two, one only on atlas, marbled endpapers, pink silk bookmarks; atlas rebacked preserving spine, slightly rubbed, occasional small abrasions, one spine head chipped.

Note

Fine, decoratively bound copy of the celebrated first French edition, which made Pallas' international fame. A German naturalist, Pallas was appointed professor of natural history at the Imperial Academy of Science in St. Petersburg, and commissioned by the Empress Catherine II to observe the transit of Venus and explore the little known parts of Russia, particularly Siberia. During the course of the six-year expedition (1768-74) he visited the Caspian, the Altay Mountains, Tomsk, the Yenisei, Tobolsk, Lake Baikal and the frontiers of China, and described, among others, 220 sorts of flowers and 78 birds. The results of Pallas' exploration were of great significance for botany, zoology, geology, geography, archeology and ethnology - and his publication is the best account of what has been described as one of the most successful scientific explorations of the 18th century.

References

Stock Number

76723