ARAGO (Jacques) - Lot 29

Lot 29
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ARAGO (Jacques) - Lot 29
ARAGO (Jacques) Memoirs of a Blind Man: A Journey Around the World. Paris, H. Lebrun, bookseller and publisher, 1868. Substantial in-4 volume, in a contemporary black half-shagreen binding, with green marbled paper covers, a smooth spine decorated with gold fillets, a gilt title, and speckled edges. New edition, revised and expanded, enriched with scientific notes by François Arago of the Institut, and preceded by an introduction by Jules Janin. The edition is well cataloged at the BnF under the publisher H. Lebrun and the date 1868. An important illustrated edition of Jacques Arago’s famous account of his circumnavigation, lavishly adorned with woodcuts throughout the text, based on works by Andrew, Best, Leloir, P. Girardet, Lebreton, Morel-Fatio, Gérard-Séguin, etc., as well as portraits of Jacques and François Arago engraved by Sixdeniers. A detailed bibliographic description of this edition lists 186 engravings. Jacques Arago (1790–1855), a writer, traveler, and draftsman, embarked in 1817 aboard the Uranie, commanded by Louis de Freycinet, for the great scientific expedition around the world that concluded in 1820. He first published his account under the title *Promenade autour du monde* in 1822, then under the title *Souvenirs d’un aveugle* beginning in 1838. The account takes the reader from Tenerife to Rio de Janeiro, then to the Cape, the Islands of France and Bourbon, Australia, Timor, and the Moluccas, before reaching the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), New South Wales, and Sydney. Arago also recounts the passage around Cape Horn, the shipwreck of the *Uranie*, the Falkland Islands, Montevideo, and the return to France. A copy in its original binding. The binding is heavily worn: the covers are heavily scuffed; the marbled paper shows significant surface wear and missing areas; the corners are rounded; and the fore-edges and headbands are scuffed with small missing areas. Scattered foxing and browning, sometimes heavy, with some marginal soiling; nevertheless, the volume is structurally sound and perfectly legible. The printing still has good contrast, and many of the illustrations retain their full appeal.
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