Voyage pittoresque et historique de l'Istrie et de la Dalmatie.

Folio: [4]-viii-190-[1] pp.; 68 pl. (light marg. dampstaining, sl. foxing, 1st map partly detached and another pl. almost loose).

Contemp. three-quarter calf, marbled paper covers, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt roll-stamps (rubbed, some scratches).

First edition and first issue of the illustrations by/or under Née's direction after the drawings of Louis François Cassas: 1 engr. title, 1 frontispiece, 1 double-page map, 66 plates (some fold. or on double-pp.) and 3 historiated headpieces. Figuring Trieste, Predjama castle, the Pula Arena, Diocletian's Palace in Split, waterfalls, etc. The painter Cassas (1756-1827) "visited Istria and Dalmatia in 1782 when he was commissioned to make drawings of the antiquities in the area by "une société d'amateurs des beaux arts"" (cfr Blackmer). The text by the polygraph Joseph Lavallée (1747-1816) is divided in two parts: 1st is a general history of Istria and Dalmatia and 2nd is edited from Cassas' journal of the voyage.
Ref. The Blackmer coll., 456. - Cohen 205. - Kat. Berlin 1910.