Paris, Léopold Collin, 1807.
8vo of (44) ll., xvi pp., 390 pp., 2 folding plates ((Vue de la ville de Palma, Autel des druides) and 1 full-page plate (Femmes des Iles Baléares).
Boards covered with morocco, boards adorned with a gilt roulette, “A. S.A.S. Monseigneur le Prince Cambacérès Archi Chancelier de l’Empire” stamped in gilt letters on the upper cover, untrimmed, split hinges. Contemporary binding.
217 x 135 mm.
Original edition dedicated to prince de Talleyrand, adorned with 3 engraved plates, including 2 folding: view of Palma, costume of the women of the Balearic Islands, Druid altar.
“I have endeavored to acquire a new title to the public’s favor through continuous research on the topography, physical wealth of the Balearic and Pithiuses islands, and on the character, customs, industry, and commerce of their inhabitants. I have strived to provide the most accurate and detailed description possible of the coasts and interior of these islands. After giving, in specific chapters, the detailed description of each island, I have gathered in general chapters everything related to the character, customs, usages, industry, commerce, costumes, and language of the inhabitants of all these islands. I dedicated a chapter to the antiquities found there, or that still exist there. I conclude, finally, with a historical overview.”
“To give a complete picture of these islands, it was not only necessary to have traveled and lived there for several years, but also to have been vested with a character that authorized the author to obtain all possible information about the country and its inhabitants; it required possessing the spirit of observation necessary to take advantage of these documents. Mr. Grasset de Saint-Sauveur had these advantages, and we owe to his laborious research on the Balearic and Pithiuses islands, knowledge as extensive as that he had provided us on the Venetian islands. His work is divided into nineteen chapters: it includes I) The situation of the Balearic and Pithiuses islands, the origin of their names, their extent, their shape; the situation, coasts, and anchorages of Majorca and Cabrera islands, 2) The description of Majorca island, which includes the picture of its climate, the qualities, culture, and productions of its lands, 3) The description of Palma city, 4) The situation, extent, coasts, and anchorages of Minorca island, 5) The description of Mahon city and its territory, 6) Observations on the climate, qualities, and productions of the lands and coasts of Minorca island, 7) The situation, extent, coasts, and anchorages of Minorca islands, 8) A particular description of Formentera island, and the channels formed between the Pithiuses islands, 9) The picture of the character and customs, industry, and commerce of the inhabitants of the Balearic and Pithiuses islands, 10) Research on their idiom and their costume, 11) The antiquities of the Balearic islands, 12) Finally, a historical overview of the Balearic and Pithiuses islands. Throughout the work, curious and instructive research, useful or piquant remarks, happy comparisons, make one forget the dryness of some topographical details…” (Journal général de la littérature de France, vol. 9).
Precious copy bound for Cambacérès, printed on large vellum paper.
Jean-Jacques-Régis Cambacérès, eldest son of Jean-Antoine, advisor to the Court of Accounts and mayor of Montpellier, and Marie-Rose Vassal, born in this city on October 18, 1752, became advisor to the same Court on November 16, 1774, then advisor to the Parliament of Toulouse in 1783; favorable to revolutionary principles, although of noble origin, he was appointed president of the criminal court of Hérault, then elected in September 1792 deputy to the Convention, where he mainly dealt with legal issues; he became its president on October 7, 1794; he also chaired the council of the Five Hundred from October 22, 1796, to May 20, 1797, and was appointed Minister of Justice in August 1799. Although he did not participate in the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire, he was chosen by Bonaparte as second consul on December 13, 1799. After becoming emperor, Napoleon appointed Cambacérès arch-chancellor in 1804, perpetual president of the Senate, civil officer of the imperial household, member of the private council, president of the High Court, member of the Institute, where he had already entered in 1796, grand-eagle of the Legion of Honor in 1805, grand commander of the Iron Crown and Duke of Parma, prince of the Empire, on April 24, 1808. A remarkable administrator, moderate spirit, of sure judgment, Cambacérès, whose Civil Code and Code of Procedure were largely his work, reorganized the judicial administration and directed the internal organization throughout the Empire. After living in retirement during the first Restoration, he resumed his functions as arch-chancellor with the interim of the Ministry of Justice during the Hundred Days and presided over the Chamber of Peers of which he had been created a member. He nevertheless renounced his title of Duke of Parma on March 26, 1815. Exiled during the second Restoration as a regicide, which was not accurate, he resided in Brussels and Amsterdam, but he was allowed to return to France by royal ordinance of May 23, 1818. Back in Paris, he lived again in retirement and died of apoplexy in this city on March 8, 1824. Cambacérès owned a very fine library, composed mainly of works of law and science bound in green or red morocco. All the books of the arch-chancellor were marked either with his cipher or his arms; some had been bound for his personal account, others were offered to him, sumptuously presented.
Provenance: Cambacérès, Jean Lhomer, Doctor Lucien-Graux.
