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SONNERAT, Pierre (1749-1811). Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinie, dans lequel on trouve la description des Lieux, des Observations physiques & morales, & des détails relatifs à l'histoire naturelle dans le regne animal & le regne végétal. Paris: Ruault, 1776. 4° (243 x 190mm). Half title, engraved frontispiece and 119 engravings on 118 plates, 6 of these folding, by C. Bacquoy after Desmoulins and P. Sonnerat, wood-engraved headpieces (occasional light even browning, marginal dampstain in a few plates, occasional light scattered spotting). Contemporary half calf, spine gilt in compartments with floral tool, red morocco label, edges red (rubbed). Provenance: 20th-century ownership stamp to endpapers, and first and last few leaves.
FIRST EDITION of the account of Sonnerat's first voyage to New Guinea. Sonnerat in fact never got closer to New Guinea than Gebi Island, and many of the observations and illustrations relate to spices and birds encountered along the way, primarily in the Philippines and Moluccas. The views include a folding engraving of the Seychelles, and the finely engraved depictions of birds include one of the earliest illustrations of the Australian laughing kookaburra (Hill). Sonnerat brought back a botanical and zoological collection which formed the basis of this, his first major publication. 'The work appears to have been a supplement to Brisson's Ornithologie (1760) and a link with the Histoire naturelle des oiseaux of Buffon and Guineau de Montbéliard ... It no doubt promoted his admission to the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts of Lyons as associate member, and his election on 19 January 1774 to the Académie Royale des Sciences as correspondent of the botanist Adanson.' (DSB). Nissen IVB 885; Stafleu 12.451a; Hill (2004) 1606.
FIRST EDITION of the account of Sonnerat's first voyage to New Guinea. Sonnerat in fact never got closer to New Guinea than Gebi Island, and many of the observations and illustrations relate to spices and birds encountered along the way, primarily in the Philippines and Moluccas. The views include a folding engraving of the Seychelles, and the finely engraved depictions of birds include one of the earliest illustrations of the Australian laughing kookaburra (Hill). Sonnerat brought back a botanical and zoological collection which formed the basis of this, his first major publication. 'The work appears to have been a supplement to Brisson's Ornithologie (1760) and a link with the Histoire naturelle des oiseaux of Buffon and Guineau de Montbéliard ... It no doubt promoted his admission to the Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts of Lyons as associate member, and his election on 19 January 1774 to the Académie Royale des Sciences as correspondent of the botanist Adanson.' (DSB). Nissen IVB 885; Stafleu 12.451a; Hill (2004) 1606.
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