Collection complète des voyages autour du monde

4 volumes of: (2) ff., IV, XVI pp., (1) f., XXXII, 388 pp., 16 plates; (3) ff., 536 pp., 16 plates; (3) ff., 394 pp., 17 plates; (1) ff., VIII, 367 pp., 3 plates.

5 volumes of: XII pp., pp. V-XLIV, 460 pp., 18 plates; VIII, 432 pp., 20 plates; VIII; 374 pp., (1) f., 21 plates; VIII, 413 pp., (1) f., 7 plates, 1 folding table; XII, 510 pp., (1) f., 1 plate, 1 folding table.

5 volumes of: (4) ff., CXXXI, 437 pp., (1); (2) ff., 422 pp., (1) ff.; (2) ff., 488 pp., (2) ff., 552 pp., (1) f., 1 folding table; atlas of 88 plates.

Set of 14 quarto volumes, mottled calf, gilt triple fillet border on boards, spines with raised bands decorated with fleurons and gilt armorials at the head, red morocco title and volume labels, gilt double fillet on edges, red edges. Contemporary binding.

250 x 195 mm.

Cook, Captain James. Complete collection of voyages around the world.

- Account of the voyages undertaken to make discoveries in the southern hemisphere, by Byron, Carteret, Wallis, and Cook. Translated from English.

Paris, Saillant, Nyon and Panckoucke, 1774.

- Voyage in the southern hemisphere, and around the world, made on the king’s ships, in 1772‑1775. Translated from English.

Paris, Hôtel de Thou, 1778.

- Third voyage of Cook, or voyage to the Pacific Ocean, ordered by the King of England, to make discoveries in the northern hemisphere […] carried out in 1776‑1780. Translated from English.

Paris, Hôtel de Thou, 1785.

First French editions of Cook’s three voyages, the only ones in quarto format.

The translation of the first two voyages was done by Suard, that of the third by Demeunier.

A set comprising 10 copper engravings (made under the direction of Benard, including a portrait-frontispiece), 63 maps, 143 plates and 3 tables, most of them folding or double-page, thus complete.

In three successive voyages (1768-1772 and 1776) Cook sailed the South Sea, established the individuality of several islands (New Zealand, Australia…) that were previously thought to be part of the hypothetical southern continent, and collected the most precise and comprehensive observations on the Polynesian archipelagos.

From the ethnographic, anthropological, and linguistic point of view, the account is of great scientific importance: “A scholar with a comprehensive and broad mind, he noticed that most travel accounts paid little attention to the human species or, when they did care, gave only vague and fanciful information, of mainly spectacular interest (…). This is why Foster wants to collect facts and only facts. One understands how such an attitude constitutes an innovation in ethnographic research which, during the 18th century, was struggling to acquire its individuality within philosophical disciplines to become a science of observation and even experimentation.” (Daumas, History of Science, pp. 1458-1459).

The illustration, of considerable interest, includes 207 copper engravings outside the text, some folding: maps, portraits, views, fauna, flora… The whole shows exotic scenes, customs, hunting, new and precise ethnological information, notably surprising portraits of natives and true-to-life views of wonderful landscapes. The plates of the third volume were bound separately at the time, as an atlas of slightly larger format.

Through the text and the illustrations, these volumes provide extremely rich documentation on Brazil, the Strait of Magellan, the Falkland Islands, the Cape of Good Hope, Tahiti, New Zealand, and the southern coasts.

Superb copy elegantly bound at the time for theDuchess of La Rochefoucauld d’Anville, and coming from the library of the Château de La Roche-Guyon.

The 14 volumes, having been published over about ten years on the eve of the Revolution and sold in three distinct series, were most often bound separately. Collections assembled afterwards generally have mismatched bindings.

“The Duke of La Rochefoucauld (1747-1827) made, in 1769, a trip to England devoted to the study of the industrial and agricultural methods in use on the other side of the Channel. He then returned to settle on his estate of Liancourt, where he founded a model farm and a school of arts and crafts, which admitted children of poor soldiers. This school, which was the origin of the École des arts et métiers of Châlons, rapidly thrived, such that it had 130 students in 1788: Louis XVI took it under his patronage and gave it the name École des enfants de la patrie. Elected as deputy to the Estates-General by the nobility of the Clermont-en-Beauvaisis bailiwick, the Duke of La Rochefoucauld knew how to reconcile in this assembly a sincere loyalty to the monarch with an enlightened love of liberty.

History has recorded the reply he gave to Louis XVI, who called the formidable movements of the people of Paris on July 12, 1789 a revolt: ‘No, Sire,’ said the Duke, ‘it is a revolution.’

At the end of the Constituent Assembly’s session, he was appointed, as Lieutenant General, in command of the departments of Picardy and Normandy, and offered Louis XVI asylum in these provinces, but the king refused. Forced to emigrate after August 10, he stayed successively in England and the United States, returned to France under the Consulate, and devoted himself to promoting the new agricultural and industrial methods used by our neighbors across the Channel.”

The gathering of these 3 voyages in first editions, uniformly bound, is sought after.

It is exceptional in armorial binding of the period.

Provenance: Marie-Louise-Nicole de La Rochefoucauld, Duchess of Anville (OHR 713), arms on the spine and stamp of the Château de La Roche-Guyon on the titles: library of the Château de La Roche-Guyon, Sotheby’s Monaco, 8-9 December 1987, lot 451); Pierre Bérès.