Voyage en Sibérie, fait par ordre du roi en 1761; contenant les moeurs, les usages des Russes, & l'état actuel de cette puissance, &c.

2 vol. (continuous pagination), 8vo: [4]-viii-1/316, [4]-317/683-[1] pp.; 7 pl. and 6 tables (some foxing, occ. sl. stains in vol. I, tear in p. 21 of vol. I without loss of text and another marg. tear in p. 27 without loss of paper, folds reinforced to 2 tables and the map, lower part of p. 316 in vol. I doubled).

Contemp. mottled sheep, gilt-orn. spines with raised bands, red edges (joints renewed, sm. wormholes to lower corner of vol. II, corners sl. used).

Second edition, simplified in a smaller dimension compared to the first edition published in 1768 (3 vol. 4to and 1 atlas vol. folio). Illustrated with 1 large fold. map of the Kamchatka Peninsula, 6 plates, 1 fold., depicting Russians and Samoyedic people in their costumes and illustrating punishments (with a batog, with a Great Knout and with an Ordinary Knout), and with 6 fold. statistics tables. The French astronomer Chappe (1722-1769) is best known for his observations of the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769; the 1761 (6 June) transit he observed in Tobolsk (Siberia). The journey to Siberia was arduous and Chappe had to be protected by armed Cossacks because of accusations of "messing with the Sun" by local peasants. The accounts of his travels in Russia and of Russian morals, habits and society, which were not at all flattering, were soon followed by the publication of an anonymous pamphlet, "Antidote ou Examen critique du mauvais livre intitulé "Voyage en Sibérie"", often attributed to Catherine the Great.
Ref. Cox I:352. - STCN. - Not in Chadenat.
Prov. Hjalmar Hartmann (1870-1945) from Norway, worked as gardener for the Danish Royal Castle and later created his own tree nursery (bookpl.).