Almost never encountered complete

(Saintine, X[avier] B[oniface] [i. e. Joseph Xavier Boniface], ed.). Histoire scientifique et militaire de l'éxpedition française en Égypte.

€ 65,000.00

First edition, almost never encountered complete as thus. Important source for the history and activities of the 1798 French expedition to Egypt, published in ten text volumes by Louis Reybaud and two atlas volumes. The portraits of the members of the expedition (usually forming part of the text volumes) have here been bound separately; also contains two additional portraits (not counted). "The 160 profile portraits by Dutertre [...] are of particular interest" (Blackmer). Many of the plates showing views, antiquities, maps etc. were engraved after drawings by Vivant Denon, whose work opened up the Middle East for western eyes as no other had done before (cf. Henze II, 50).

Plates numbered 1-309 (each of the 13 folding plates counting as a double), followed by "dernière planche" and 3 maps. Five of the facsimiles have been bound at the end of the second atlas volume, another in vol. 3. The text volumes contain the "Histoire ancienne" (vols. 1-2) and the "Histoire moderne de l'Égypte" (vols. 9-10) as well as the expedition report proper (vols. 3-8). All text volumes have four title pages (slightly departing from those in Blackmer's copy). Vol. 1 also contains a "Rapport" of the work for the Académie by G. Saint-Hilaire, dated Nov. 1836, which names Louis Reybaud as "principal rédacteur".

A magnificent set in period bindings, interior clean and spotless throughout. No complete copy recorded at auction within the last decades.