L'Illyrie et la Dalmatie
Illyria and Dalmatia by Breton de la Martinière adorned with 32 period hand-colored plates.
Very fine copy in contemporary decorated morocco from the library of Augusta-Amalia of Bavaria (1788-1851), with ex-libris.
2 volumes in-16 of I/ (2) leaves, XII pp., 155 pp., (2) leaves and 11 plates; II/ (2) leaves, 171 pp., (1) leaf, 21 plates.
Green long-grain morocco, gilt-tooled fillet border on covers, smooth spines decorated with gilt fillets and motifs, red morocco title and volume labels, blind-tooled decorations on edges, gilt edges. Contemporary binding.
131 x 77 mm.
Hacquet - Breton de la Martinière. Illyria and Dalmatia, or customs, usages and costumes of their inhabitants and those of neighboring regions. Translated from the German, by Dr. Hacquet, by Mr. Breton de la Martinière.
Paris, Nepveu, 1815.
First edition adorned with 32 beautiful full-page plates finely colored at the time.
Lipperheide, 879; Brunet, I, 1226, Atabey, 149.
“The figures combine the merit of execution with that of an exact likeness” (Charles Nodier).
Complete with the 32 announced color plates, this work is by Balthasar Hacquet.
It was translated from German by Breton de la Martinière.
Balthazar Hacquet (1739-1815) studied medicine in Austria and took part in the Seven Years’ War as a surgeon. Hacquet was supported by Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph II, who provided him on multiple occasions with the funds needed for carrying out scientific exploration journeys. He traveled on foot through much of the Austrian Empire and made important and numerous geological, petrographic, paleontological, botanical, and ethnological observations.
“Dr. Hacquet’s work, by adding to the knowledge his predecessors gave on the customs, usages and costumes of the various inhabitants of Dalmatia, sheds entirely new light on the people of Illyria, a people so little known in France until now […] The style, as in all other works by Mr. Breton in the same genre, has the dual merit of speed and clarity” (Treuttel and Würtz).
Beautiful and valuable copy, complete with all 32 finely colored engravings of the time and preserved in its elegant contemporary morocco binding.
Provenance: Augusta-Amalia of Bavaria (1788-1851) library with ex-libris.
Daughter of Maximilian Joseph, King of Bavaria, and Marie-Wilhelmine-Auguste of Hesse-Darmstadt, Augusta-Amalia of Bavaria married Eugène Pierre de Beauharnais known as Prince Eugène, adopted son of Napoleon I and viceroy of Italy (O. Hermal, plche. 2672).
