LABBÉ, Paul (1867–1943). - Lot 158

LABBÉ, Paul (1867–1943). French explorer, orientalist, geographer, and ethnographer. A prolific traveler and specialist in Russia, Central Asia, and the Balkans, he served as secretary general of the Geographical Society and was a leading figure in the popularization of geography in France in the early 20th century. An important autograph working manuscript with corrections, titled “Conference,” relating to a trip to Serbia (1909), circa 1909–1910. A collection of approximately 20 pages in-8, printed with numerous handwritten corrections, cross-outs, deletions, and additions in black ink, signed and annotated “Paul Labbé.” A very interesting preparatory manuscript for a lecture devoted to Serbia, its landscapes, social structures, customs, agriculture, mineral resources, and political context. The extremely rich text describes: - Belgrade and the Danube - the Timok Valley and the Iron Gates - Serbian rural customs, including the slava, a family patron saint’s day celebration - villages, livestock farming, and crops - Austro-Hungarian tensions and the Bosnian question In particular, the text contains especially evocative passages on: “Greater Serbia” “Bosnia, now under Austrian rule” “the fear of a general conflagration” which lends the work as a whole a remarkable prescient quality just a few years before the events in Sarajevo. The numerous handwritten corrections indicate that this was a working draft, likely intended for public reading or publication.