Exemplaire de la Dauphine puis d'Henri Beraldi - Lot 406

Exemplaire de la Dauphine puis d'Henri Beraldi LABOULINIERE (Pierre Toussaint de) Itinéraire descriptif et pittoresque des Hautes-Pyrénées françoises, jadis territoire du Béarn, du Bigorre, des Quatre-Vallées, du Comminges, et de la Haute Garonne, contenant, outre la description des lieux, l'Histoire de ces diverses contrées, et de leurs Antiquités ; un Précis sur la population, l'agriculture, l'industrie, le commerce ; un aperçu sur les moeurs, les coutumes, les sciences, les beaux-arts, la littérature et le langage. Paris, Gide, 1825. 3 volumes in-8: 8f. (paginated a-q), 376pp. (including XIV foreword) / 404pp. / 2f., 422pp; one folding map engraved by TARDIEU, one large folding panorama by DELECLUZE, 15 plates hors texte (4/5/6) lithographed by ENGELMANN after DELECLUSE, de LABORDE, GIRARDIN, de MONTESQUIOU, de SAINT AIGNAN and ROQUES (the plates are as usual extremely "oxidized and browned", probably due to the poor quality of the paper). Contemporary glazed bronze calf, ornate smooth spines, gilt and cold lace framing the boards, corner roulettes on the edges, fine inner gilt lace, a bump on one edge of each volume, gilt edges. A fine copy. A precious copy from the library of Henri BERALDI. Complete with Delécluze's folding panorama, which is extremely rare and almost never found. A professional work, the first true guide to the Pyrenees. It is a mine of reliable information, and the description is free of the romantic exaggeration of the time. Beraldi notes a "fine account of an ascent, from the Vallée d'Aure to St Sauveur via the Néouvielle, on July 26, 1812. One of the rare accounts of a great race left to us by the ancient history of the Pyrenees". It's a pity that the plates are browned most of the time and that the print run is mediocre (Labarère 803). Born in Saint Victurnien, Limousin, around 1780, he began by studying medicine, before becoming secretary to Marshal Jourdan, with whom he traveled to Italy. He taught philosophy in Turin. Under the Restoration, he became sub-prefect of Etampes. In this "Descriptive Itinerary", the picturesque holds an equal place with the purely statistical and the economic and political analysis. Provenance: A handwritten note from the period specifies: Exemplaire de Madame la Dauphine (Marie Charlotte de France, duchesse d'Angoulême, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette) à Villeneuve l'Étang. It was donated to the Mont Saint Michel lottery by M. le Vicomte de Caze. Lemon leather bookplate of Henri Beraldi, then library of Abbé Doazan.