Hordern House

ASSEMBLÉE NATIONALE Loi relative à M. de la Peyrouse, & à l'impression des Cartes par lui envoyées... Grenoble, J.M. Cuchet, 1791

Quarto, 4 pp., unbound as issued; in fine condition, preserved in a morocco-backed folder.

Very scarce indeed: the French National Assembly decree calling for the publication of all of the accounts and charts 'envoyées par M. la Peyrouse, de la partie de son voyage jusqu'à Botanibay...'. This Grenoble printing has a manuscript certification dated 28 April 1791 for the district of La Tour du Pin.

Although issued two months later, this is clearly a companion to the February edict initiating the search for the lost explorer. Here the government decides on the publication of the official account of La Pérouse's voyage. A wealth of material was available because of La Pérouse's habit of regularly forwarding the latest information by any means available: famously, his last report was forwarded by Governor Phillip from Port Jackson. The publication announced here would be six years in the making, first appearing in 1797 as Voyage de la Pérouse autour du Monde, which would come to be regarded as one of the greatest narratives of maritime exploration ever published. The decree itself is printed at the start of the book.

This printing appears to be even rarer than the February edict. A Paris version of the same year is recorded by the Centenaire de la mort de La Pérouse (Paris, 1888; no. 48) and by Allen's Check List (p. 10) as well as by McLaren (134); Ferguson (107) knew of the Paris edition only from the entry in Centenaire, but a copy has since been acquired by the National Library. This Grenoble printing thus appears to be unknown amongst the standard bibliographers.
Not in Ferguson; not noted by McLaren.

$A9500

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