DOUVILLE, Jean-Baptiste
Voyage au Congo et dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique équinoxiale, fait dans les années 1828, 1829 et 1830. Paris, Jules Renouard, 1832. 3 volumes of text in-8 (204 x 127 mm) of 2 ff.n.ch., XXXI, 328 pp., 1 plate out of text (medal) for volume I; 2 ff.n.ch., 380 pp. for volume II; 2 ff.n.ch. and 272 pp. for volume III; and 1 large atlas in-4 (350 x 260 mm) of 1 ff.n.ch. of title, 1 large map and 20 plates of which 13 in colors. Text in midnight blue half calf, smooth spine decorated with a romantic ornament including the interlaced figure of Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, marbled edges (period binding), atlas in half calf (modern pastiche binding).
Gay, 3071; Numa Broc, 118.
First edition.
Relation of travels in the north of Angola and in the Congo basin, which won "a great success with a public fond of exoticism and piquant anecdotes but repelled by geography" and provoked a memorable scholarly quarrel, which lasts until our days.
How far did Douville tell the truth? This former seminarian born in Hambye (Normandy) in 1797 made his fortune in England in trade, then travelled to Asia and South America (notably to Brazil) before arriving in Africa in 1817.
The veracity of these accounts was challenged in 1832 by the English geographer Cooley, who claimed that Douville had never gone beyond the African coast, and that he had borrowed his account from Portuguese merchants and slave traders...
Back in Brazil, Douville devoted himself to the local flora and fauna: his collections will form the first nucleus of the Bahia Museum of Natural History. He is said to have been murdered on the banks of the Rio São Francisco in 1837.
The lithographed illustration includes a large folded map and 20 plates, 13 of which are in color: African types, funeral feasts, human sacrifice, views, etc. The frontispiece of volume I shows the gold medal awarded to the author by the Geographical Society in 1831.
Minor foxing, a little more pronounced for the atlas which does not contain the table leaf. A nicely bound copy.
Provenance : King Louis-Philippe (cancelled stamp on the titles of the text and figure on the back) - château de Bizy (wet stamp, library rib to wet stamp on each guard).
