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HORACE-BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE (1740-1799)
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HORACE-BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE (1740-1799)
Voyages dans les Alpes, précédés d'un essai sur l'histoire naturelle des environs de Genève. Neuchâtel: Samuel Fauche, 1779, 1786, 1796. 4 vols, 4° (253 x 195mm). Half-titles, 21 (of 22) engraved plates on 20 sheets, the majority folding, 1 (of 2) folding maps, 2 plates of tables, engraved vignette to each title-page, with further vignettes as head-pieces, Avis au Relieur to rear vol. I, Explication des Planches leaf to rear vol. III, Explication des planches and Avertissement/Errata leaves to rear vol. IV. (Lacking one map and one plate, the plate supplied in photocopy facsimile, occasional spotting and light browning, mainly marginal, light water-stain to top of gutter of vol. I, occasional small tears neatly repaired, later portrait of the author to front pastedown of vol. I.) Contemporary speckled half roan over speckled boards, spines gilt with labels, speckled edges (extremities lightly rubbed).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS 'FOUNDING WORK OF GEOLOGY... one of the first wilderness travel books' (Macfarlane). Saussure, an experimental petrologist who popularized the term 'geology', made extensive traverses of the Alps performing experiments on the fusion of granites and porphyries. He studied the inhabitants of the mountains and their conditions of life, writing also of the pleasure of mountaineering and Alpine exploration. His travels unlocked a previously shunned and dangerous terrain and gave birth to a new generation of mountaineers for whom scientific enquiry provided a reason and excuse for travelling in the mountains. Macfarlane p.48; Graesse VI, 277; Brunet V, 150; Longchamp 2615.
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Voyages dans les Alpes, précédés d'un essai sur l'histoire naturelle des environs de Genève. Neuchâtel: Samuel Fauche, 1779, 1786, 1796. 4 vols, 4° (253 x 195mm). Half-titles, 21 (of 22) engraved plates on 20 sheets, the majority folding, 1 (of 2) folding maps, 2 plates of tables, engraved vignette to each title-page, with further vignettes as head-pieces, Avis au Relieur to rear vol. I, Explication des Planches leaf to rear vol. III, Explication des planches and Avertissement/Errata leaves to rear vol. IV. (Lacking one map and one plate, the plate supplied in photocopy facsimile, occasional spotting and light browning, mainly marginal, light water-stain to top of gutter of vol. I, occasional small tears neatly repaired, later portrait of the author to front pastedown of vol. I.) Contemporary speckled half roan over speckled boards, spines gilt with labels, speckled edges (extremities lightly rubbed).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS 'FOUNDING WORK OF GEOLOGY... one of the first wilderness travel books' (Macfarlane). Saussure, an experimental petrologist who popularized the term 'geology', made extensive traverses of the Alps performing experiments on the fusion of granites and porphyries. He studied the inhabitants of the mountains and their conditions of life, writing also of the pleasure of mountaineering and Alpine exploration. His travels unlocked a previously shunned and dangerous terrain and gave birth to a new generation of mountaineers for whom scientific enquiry provided a reason and excuse for travelling in the mountains. Macfarlane p.48; Graesse VI, 277; Brunet V, 150; Longchamp 2615.
(4)