Chappe d'Auteroche, Jean.

4 volumes, three text volumes, 4to (338 x 245mm.), including 54 plates and 3 maps, and one atlas volume, (625 x 479mm.), 29 maps, text volumes bound in contemporary calf, double gilt fillet border with gilt fleurons at each corner, spine in six compartments, second and third lettered in gilt, gilt library stamp in centre of covers, atlas in half calf, spine lettered in gilt, atlas lacking Map X, Map XXII cut down not affecting map, Map XII with long closed tear, third text volume has tears with loss at leaves b, H4 and L3 not affecting text, text volumes rebacked

The Signet Library, Edinburgh, with bookplate, gilt stamp, shelf numbers and "duplicate" stamp dated 1838

Brunet I, 1728; Cox I, p.352; Hill 277; Lada-Mocarski 12; Reynaud Notes Supplementaires 83

Jean Chappe d'Auteroche (1722-1769) was a French priest and astronomer who was sent to Siberia by Louis XIV in 1761 to observe the Transit of Venus. He produced a work on Siberia, which occupies the first two of these three volumes, that became the standard account of Siberia for many decades. It is celebrated for its observations on the peoples, botany and minerals of the region, and particularly for its engravings, which vividly bring the text to life, although occasionally employing poetic licence, particularly regarding the number of scantily clad females cavorting around in Siberia in the 1760s. The third volume, which contains d'Auteroche's translation (into French) of Stepan Petrovich Krasheninnikov's Description of the Land Kamchatka from the 1755 Russian edition, includes a great deal of material, textual and illustrative, on Alaska, the northwest coast of America, and the fur trade.