PERNETY, Dom Antoine-Joseph - Lot 128

PERNETY, Dom Antoine-Joseph Journal Historique d'un voyage fait aux Îles Maloïnes en 1763 & 1764, pour les reconnoître, & y former un établissement ; et de deux voyages au détroit de Magellan. Berlin, Étienne de Bourdaux, 1769. 2 volumes in-12 (180 x 110 mm) of XVI, 403 pp. for volume I; 1 f.n.ch., [404]-704 pp., 24 ff.n.ch., 18 folding engraved plates for volume II. Marbled calf, smooth spine decorated, red edges (contemporary binding). Sabin, 60997; Leclerc, 1984; see Borba de Moraes, II, 663 (for the second edition of 1770). First edition. Very curious engraved intaglio illustration, including 18 folding plates and maps showing the fauna and flora (including a sea lion), the River Plate, Montevideo, its inhabitants, the Falkland Islands, the first settlement, the Strait of Magellan, etc. It was on the orders of Choiseul that Bougainville took the lead of this expedition, whose goal was the colonization of the Falklands archipelago and the implantation of about thirty Acadian settlers. Attached as chaplain to the mission, Dom Pernety visited the island of Saint Catherine and Montevideo, about which he gives curious details. He gives a detailed account of the taking of possession of the islands in the name of Louis XV. Having left the Benedictine rule, Pernety went to Frederick II who appointed him curator of the Berlin library. Touched by an illuminist current, he translated Swedenborg and published several hermetic works, before returning to France and forming the group of the Illuminés of Avignon. Marginal wetness; corners and headpieces previously restored. A good copy of this rare travelogue.