Saint-Domingue - Lot 517

Saint-Domingue DALMAS (Antoine) Histoire de la révolution de Saint Domingue, depuis le début des troubles, jusqu'à la prise de Jérémie et du mole S. Nicolas par les anglais, suivie d'un Mémoire sur le rétablissement de cette colonie. Paris, Mame frères, 1814. 2 volumes in-8; folding table in fine. ½ contemporary bronze calf, smooth spines, black titles and endpapers, gilt fillets, cold irons, D de F. (Duval de Fraville) gilt at foot of spine, marbled edges. First edition. Antoine Dalmas, surgeon, fought in the American War, lived in Saint-Domingue, then in the United States. His account of the events he witnessed is renowned for its reliability. Provenance: Ex-libris printed in the library of Baron Duval de Fraville and gilded initials at the foot of the spine. Claude Duval de Fraville (1749-1830), French politician. Son of a king's guard in the provost's office, he also held this office. A judge at the Bar-sur-Seine district court, he was elected to the Convention in 1792 by the Aube department. He sat among the moderates, and spoke out against the death penalty in the trial of Louis XVI. On 4 Brumaire An IV, he became a member of the Conseil des Cinq-Cents, as a former member of the Convention, but took no part in the debates of this assembly, leaving on 20 May 1797. He was created Baron de Fraville and of the Empire on January 2, 1814.