Item #4302357 Rapport fait à l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Sur la partie Zoologique du Voyage autour du Monde…. FREYCINET, Étienne GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE.
Rapport fait à l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Sur la partie Zoologique du Voyage autour du Monde…

Rapport fait à l'Académie Royale des Sciences…
Rapport fait à l'Académie Royale des Sciences, Sur la partie Zoologique du Voyage autour du Monde…

Paris: Pillet aîné, 1825.

Octavo, 16 pp., quarter calf.

Report on the zoology of the Freycinet voyage

Rare report by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on the zoological volume of the Freycinet voyage publication, including some personal observations on the mammals of Australia.

Rare report by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on the zoological volume of the Freycinet voyage publication, including some personal observations on the mammals of Australia.

The Zoologique section of the voyage publication was prepared by Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard, physicians and naturalists accompanying the expedition, and was published in 16 livraisons between 1824 and 1826. In this report, the eminent naturalist and savant critiques the publication, summarising the chapters and adding his own notes and observations. Originally prepared for inclusion in the Revue encyclopédique (1825, volume 26), it was separately printed in this form by the Parisian publishers Pillet to encourage sale of the Zoologique and other upcoming volumes of the Freycinet voyage publication. Effectively it forms a prospectus for the Zoologique, distributed gratis by Pillet to likely buyers.

In his report Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire comments on the remarkable mammals of New Holland, including the possum, potoroo and kangaroo, remarking on the remarkable quality and colour of its pelt: '…le kanguroo laineux; cette derniére espèce est surtout très-remarquable par la qualité de son poil, rappelant tout-à-fait celui de la vigogne par la vivacité de sa teinte (le roux ferrugineux), et par sa finesse et son abondance'. Interestingly, he also makes a passing reference to Australia's first professional artist John Lewin: 'Cependant peut-être faudra-t-il revenir aux premières vues de M. Lewin dessinateur et graveur sur les lieux mêmes, à Sydney'.

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was a towering figure of French science, appointed professor of quadrupeds, cetaceans, birds, reptiles and fish at the Musée d'histoire naturelle in 1793 at the young age of twenty-one. He travelled with Napoleon's campaign to Egypt, but it was his long study of the museum's mammalian collection that made him famous, and led to comparisons with Cuvier (although the two men fell out in 1829). During his tenure he published a series of articles and monographs on the platypus.

Not in Ferguson or Forbes.

Price (AUD): $3,750.00

US$2,441.21   Other currencies

Ref: #4302357