Botany - Lot 221

Botany LAPEYROUSE (Philippe Isidore PICOT de LAPEIROUSE or) baron Histoire abrégée des Plantes des Pyrénées, et Itinéraire des Botanistes dans ses Montagnes (followed by) Supplément à l'Histoire abrégée des Plantes des Pyrénées. Toulouse, Bellegarrigue, 1818. 2 volumes and a supplement in 2 volumes in-8 : 2f., LXXXIV (Extrait du manuscrit de TOURNEFORT), 390pp. / 2f., XII (Nivellement de REBOUL) reprise p. 389 à 700 - 2f., 160pp. ; large folding panorama by CHARPENTIER engraved by MERCADIER. Contemporary fawn shagreened basane, ornate smooth spines, green title-pieces, red tomaisons, central coat of arms, fine lace framing the boards, gilt roulette on the edges, marbled edges. Complete with supplement. This naturalist from Toulouse began his career as a scientific writer with a work on fossils in 1781 and numerous articles on Pyrenean birds in the Mémoires de l'Académie de Toulouse. He then wrote the important Traité sur les Mines de Fer et les Forges du Comté de Foix, published in 1786. He was Mayor of Toulouse for 6 years. He taught Natural History and published several works on the subject, including the superb "Figures of the Flora of the Pyrenees" in 1795, a "Methodical Table of Mammals and Birds" in 1799, and a "Monograph of Saxifrages" in 1801. Alexandre Dumège published a Monographie sur ce savant. On the Pyrenean side, he fought with his colleague Ramond for the Conquest of Mont-Perdu, but being less of a mountaineer than his colleague, he was unable to follow him and remained "at the foot of the glacier", which did not prevent him from publishing a "Voyage au Mont-Perdu" in the columns of the "Journal des Mines" in Year VI. His rivalry with Ramond is legendary. The Revolution sent him to prison for 18 months (a common trait with his rival!) (Labarère 858). Unlike the copy from the Labarère sale in April 2024, the Toulouse coat of arms has been crossed out (see provenance below). Provenance: Copy from the Doazan library (sold in Pau in 2002) with the arms of the city of Toulouse, characterized by the anomaly of the fleur-de-lis semis at the head, crossed out and replaced by a long neutral fleuron (probably produced at the time of the Revolution). Old vet's wet stamp. Only 3 examples with the Toulouse coat of arms as a supra-libris are known to date.