Africa - Lot 466

Africa BORY DE ST-VINCENT (Jean Baptiste Geneviève Marcellin) baron Voyage dans les quatre principales îles des mers d'Afrique, fait par ordre du gouvernement, pendant l'année neuf et dix de la République (1801 et 1802), Avec l'histoire de la traversée du Capitaine Baudin jusqu'au Port-Louis de l'île Maurice Paris, Buisson, an XIII (1804). 3 volumes in-8 and one atlas large in-4; 58 plates and maps (numbered I- LVI and plates XIV bis, XXIII bis), most of them folding, drawn by the author, and engraved in intaglio, one of them enhanced in color. Very fine map of Reunion, a second of Reunion and the "Île de France". Percaline olive à la Bradel, black titles on spine. First edition with complete atlas. Views and maps feature islands (including Reunion Island and Ile de France (Mauritius), cross-sections of landscapes, volcanoes, rivers, craters, waterfalls, botany and zoology). A geographer and naturalist, Bory de Saint-Vincent was interested in volcanology and biology, and in this work he provides the first scientific description of the Piton de la Fournaise, the active volcano on Reunion Island, one of whose two craters is called the Bory Crater.