82 - Seran de la Tour A.: Histoire d' Epaminondas général des Thébains, avec des remarques critiques et historiques et les observations. Paris, 1739

Seran de la Tour A.: Histoire d' Epaminondas général des Thébains, avec des remarques critiques et historiques et les observations. Paris, 1739 First edition, in 8vo, contemporary full leather slightly rubbed at the covers, spine very richly gilt, complete [68], 352 p. [8], with the famous folded map of Greece by Bellin. Text clean and bright, overall very good. A very rare account, one of the very first worldwide of Philhellenism and comparative examinations of military events through different perspectives, mixing military history and the history of geography. Seran de la Tour, a French historian and ardent Philhellene of the Enlightenment century, passionate about the first defeat of the Spartans, the invincible army of antiquity, sought to examine the reasons and analyzed the campaigns of Epaminondas through a new prism. He examined factors of geography and swift military tactics, with identification of concrete places. The historical events and the employed military tactics were analyzed in contrast with those of his own contemporaries, focusing on the high value of ancient Greek tactics. For this reason, the author asked Bellin, the best French geographer of his time, to provide a new map of southern Greece, the setting of the described events. It was the best possible map of its time, based on all the available measurements of the French Dépôt (as Bellin was its director) for the coastlines, as well as accounts of several travelers and previous Venetian measurements for the interior lands. Every military battle was analyzed within this context, and the figure of Epaminondas was praised as an illustrious man. One of the earliest Philhellenic accounts. Rare.