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PALLAS, P[eter] S[imon] [1741-1811].. Voyages En Différentes Provinces De L'Empire De Russie, Et Dans L'Asie Septentrionale.

5 Volumes of text in 4to. + folio atlas. pp. 2 p.l., xxxii, 773, [3]errata; 2 p.l., 550, [1 leaf]errata; 2 p.l., 491, [1]errata; 2 p.l., 722, [2]errata; 2 p.l., 559, [1]errata; 2 p.l. + 124 numbered illustrations on 108 engraved plates by P.F.Tardieu & N. Thomas (many folding/and/or double-illus.) incl. large joined double-sheet map of Russia. complete with half-titles. woodcut ornaments, initials, & title vignettes. A large copy, with deckle edge visible on many leaves, bound in later (c1900) quarter calf (rubbed, outer leaves with light soiling & marginal defects or repairs, some scattered light foxing, occasional dampstaining mainly confined to margins but entering plate mark on 17 plates at end of atlas, a few plates at end lightly embrowned). armorial bookplates of C.Narischkine. First Edition of the French Translation by Gauthier de la Péyronie. In 1768, at the invitation of Catherine the Great, the German naturalist Pallas became professor of natural history at the Imperial Academy of Science, St. Petersburg. The same year he was appointed naturalist to a scientific expedition through Russia and Siberia to observe the transit of Venus in 1769 and to investigate the resources of the distant regions of the Russian Empire. During the course of this six-year expedition, Pallas visited the Caspian, the Altai Mountains, Tomsk, the Yenisei, Tobolsk, Lake Baikal, Kolyvan, and the frontiers of China. The results of his explorations and scientific investigations were of the greatest significance for botany, zoology, geology, geography, and ethnology. The narrative of Pallas's travels was first published in German at St. Petersburg in 1771-76, but the French edition incorporates the natural history results of the expedition. Volume V, pp. 383-488, contains Additions et éclaircissemens pour les voyages de M. Pallas, tirés des journaux de MM. Gmelin Lepechin et Georgi, ses compagnons. The work is illustrated with eleven maps and charts including a large two-sheet map of the Russian Empire, and ninety-seven other plates containing one hundred and thirteen views and illustrations of costumes, antiquities, botanical and other natural history subjects. Brunet IV 325. Cat. Russica P35. Cohen-De Ricci p. 781. Howgego P10. cfCasey Wood 511. cfPritzel 6903. cfLipperheide 1336.

$7493 USD