BORY DE SAINT VINCENT Jean-Baptiste Voyage dans les quatre principales îles des mers d’Afrique, fait par ordre du gouvernement, pendant les années neuf et dix de la République (1801-1802).

First edition, rare with the complete atlas of 58 maps and plates, including one in color, engraved by Adam, Blondeau, Fortier, Dorgez, and B. Tardieu based on the author’s drawings.

It was thanks to the recommendation of Agen Bernard-Germain de Lacépède that Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1780-1846) was hired as a naturalist on Baudin’s second expedition to the southern lands. The two corvettes, Le Géographe and Le Naturaliste, set sail in October 1800 and circumnavigated the coast of Africa. During a stopover on Île de France (now Mauritius), part of the scientific team and some of the sailors abandoned the expedition due to serious disagreements with Baudin: Bory de Saint-Vincent was among them. The rest of the expedition continued on to Australia.

Bory de Saint-Vincent remained behind and was employed by Governor Magallon de Morlière on the general staff. He took the opportunity to visit all the neighboring islands, particularly Reunion Island.

In October 1801, he set out to climb Piton de la Fournaise, providing the first scientific description of the volcano. He named one of the craters “Dolomieu” in honor of his former teacher. He described it as a nipple and depicted it in plate 35 of this work. He gave his own name to the summit crater, Crater Bory, which is depicted in plate 34 of the Atlas.

He undertook to describe the flora of the islands’ lichens and brought back a large number of botanical, zoological, and mineralogical specimens. This work earned him Bonaparte’s favor. On his way back, he continued his geographical, physical, and botanical explorations on the island of Saint Helena.

A fine copy with Gustaf Trolle Bonde’s gilt cipher on the spine of the bindings and bookplates from the Safstaholms bibliothek.