Algérie historique, pittoresque et monumentale. Recueil de vues, monuments, cérémonies, costumes, armes et portraits dessinés d'après nature

[Algeria] Berbrugger, Louis Adrien

1843. Paris. Delahaye. Five parts in three volumes in folio (565 x 420 mm). Chromolithographed title, lithographed frontispiece, 2 maps coloured in outline and 140 lithographs on 134 plates (of which 122 tinted and 11 coloured).Contemporary brown half calf, spines tooled and lettered in gilt, rubbed. In general beautiful copies; some foxing in places as usual, browning to about 15 plates, minor and mainly marginal water staining and mildew spotting to volumes 2-3, stronger at beginning and rear, and one plate loose in volume 1.

First edition, published in 500 copies, of this wonderfully illustrated plate-book on Algeria magnificently produced in large format and containing 140 lithographs portraying customs, city views, landscapes, amongst many subjects, of which 122 are tinted and 11 contemporary colored. Parts 1 to 4 describe the provinces of Alger, Oran, Bone and Constantine, and part 5 focuses on the population (native population, Jews, Moors, Berbers, etc.), coins, and flora of Algeria. The wealth of images make it the best iconographic record of the region and the inhabitants, a mix of cultures and religions, before the conquest by the French. “Très belles planches; quelques pages d'un texte explicatif. Ouvrage très rare” (Tailliart, 718). “Marqué dans sa jeunesse par le saint-simonisme, fondateur de la Société historique algérienne, Berbrugger voyait dans l'Algérie non seulement un terrain propre à tenter une expérience socialiste, mais encore le futur lieu de réconciliation, de l'Islam et du Christianisme, de l'Orient et de l'Occident” (Numa Broc). Berbrugger (1801 - 1869) was the first curator of the library at the museum of Algeria work set the basis for the scientific knowledge of Algeria.

 

According to Lipperheide the book is complete, however according to Colas it is lacking 1 plate in volume 1; it however more complete than almost any other copy.

 

Provenance: Reiss & Sohn, Germany.

 

Graesse I, 339; Gay 864; Lipperheide Ma 23; Colas 298.

1843

$5,500.00