Item #4103485 Géographie des Grecs analysée; ou les systêmes d'Eratosthenes, de Strabon et de Ptolémée comparés entre eux et avec nos connoissances modernes. Pascal François Joseph GOSSELLIN.

Géographie des Grecs analysée…
Géographie des Grecs analysée; ou les systêmes d'Eratosthenes, de Strabon et de Ptolémée comparés entre eux et avec nos connoissances modernes.

Paris: Didot l'aîné, 1790.

Quarto, with ten folding engraved maps; later half red grained morocco.

Ancient Greek geographers

An analysis of the geographical knowledge of the ancient Greeks undertaken by Gossellin for a contest set by the French Académie Royale des Inscriptions. The ten folding maps are particularly interesting for comparing and contrasting the geographical ideas of the major ancient geographers including especially Erastothenes, Strabo and Ptolemy. They figure the Mediterranean and the classical world but extend as far east as the Indian sub-continent and the Indian Ocean, with the final map showing the East Indies as far south as the Nicobar Islands.

An analysis of the geographical knowledge of the ancient Greeks undertaken by Gossellin for a contest set by the French Académie Royale des Inscriptions. The ten folding maps are particularly interesting for comparing and contrasting the geographical ideas of the major ancient geographers including especially Erastothenes, Strabo and Ptolemy. They figure the Mediterranean and the classical world but extend as far east as the Indian sub-continent and the Indian Ocean, with the final map showing the East Indies as far south as the Nicobar Islands.

On the basis of this work Gossellin was admitted into the Académie Royale des Inscriptions in 1791; in 1795 it was renamed and subsumed along with the other learned societies, including the main French Academy itself, into the Institut de France. Over subsequent decades the academies would reconstitute themselves but remained under the umbrella of the Institut de France. Gossellin was thus at an early age a member of the most august body in his subject, and in the full French Institute itself.

His first work was followed by a wider-ranging four-volume study; the two together constitute his major contribution to the subject.

Condition Report: A very good copy.

Price (AUD): $585.00

US$384.33   Other currencies

Ref: #4103485

Condition Report