114 - BORY DE SANT VINCENT: Histoire de la Grece-Description des Iles Ioniennes, Corfou, Paxo, Leucade, Ithaque, Cephalonie, Cerigo et Naxos. Paris, 1823

BORY DE SANT VINCENT: Histoire de la Grece-Description des Iles Ioniennes, Corfou, Paxo, Leucade, Ithaque, Cephalonie, Cerigo et Naxos. Paris, 1823 First edition, first issue, the version with only the text, without the later separately published atlas. In 8vo, contemporary leather over boards, boards slightly trimmed. Text clean, with some scattered spotting on a few pages. Complete: title, portrait, [27], 427 p. Overall in very good condition. Bory de Saint-Vincent (1778-1846), a French naturalist, is best known as the leader of the scientific mission to the Morea in 1828. He was in fact the editor of this work, while the bulk of the text was written by Anthoine Schneider (1779-1847), a French officer stationed in the Ionian Islands during their occupation by the French, who then gathered important material on the islands. Schneider also took part later in the Morea expedition. The need for descriptions of Greek areas during the Revolution prompted Bory de Saint-Vincent to publish Schneider’s material, enriched with several additions from other sources, such as the chapter on Naxos, which came from a Greek Catholic native of the island. Strongly pro-Greek, Bory de Saint-Vincent helped fuel Philhellenism with this publication. References: Blackmer 168, Droulia 416, not in Atabey