BOUGAINVILLE (Louis Antoine de). Voyage autour... Lot 16

BOUGAINVILLE (Louis Antoine de). Voyage autour du monde, par la frégate du roi la Boudeuse, et la flûte l'Étoile; En 1766, 1767, 1768 & 1769. - Supplément au voyage de M. de Bougainville; ou journal d'un voyage autour du monde, Fait par MM. Banks & Solander, Anglois, en 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771. Translated from the English, by M. de Fréville. Paris: Saillant & Nyon, 1772. -2 works in 3 volumes in-8, 196x125: (4 ff.), xliij, 336 pp., 6 maps; (2 ff.), 453 pp., (1 f.), 15 maps, 3 plates; (1 f.), xvj, 362 pp., (2 ff.). Marbled calf, smooth spine decorated, red edges (period binding). Partly original second edition, published in the same year as the first, of the account of the first scientific voyage around the world by a ship flying the flag of the King of France. This circumnavigation lasted from November 1766 to March 1769. Bougainville crossed the Pacific between the Strait of Magellan and the Philippines, returning via the Indian Ocean. Also taking part were the astronomer Pierre-Antoine Véron, whose job it was to determine the longitude of the places discovered, the engineer Charles Routier de Romainville, whose job it was to map them, and the botanist Philibert Commerson, whose mission was to identify new plants. In Brazil, he discovered the flower that would come to be known as "bougainvillea". The Vahitahi and Akiaki atolls were also discovered. But above all, Bougainville's voyage and account led to a better geographical knowledge of Oceania and the enrichment of naturalist collections. The edition is illustrated with 21 maps and plans and 3 plates. At the end of the second volume is the "Vocabulaire de l'île Taiti (sic)". A complete copy of the third volume, featuring the French translation of the Journal d'un voyage autour du monde made by Joseph Banks and Daniel Charles Solender between 1768 and 1771, presented on the title as a Supplément au voyage de M. de Bougainville. The report is followed by an "Abridged Vocabulary of the Otahiti Island Language", a "Letter from M. de Commerson to M. de La Lande" on Madagascar, and a letter "Au sujet de la possibilité d'un passage de la mer du Nord ou Océan atlantique, dans la mer du Sud ou pacifique, par les mers septentrionales". This volume is not illustrated. The title here is a relay title, reported at the time. Fine set in uniform contemporary bindings, with the name "Fründeck" in gilt lettering on the lower spine. A very well preserved copy. Ink stains on pages 301 to 304 in the first volume. Worm damage in the lower margin of the last leaves of volume 2, not serious. Provenance: Fründeck, with gilt name at bottom of spines.