GRENET (Abbé). Atlas portatif pour servir a l'intelligence d - Lot 311

GRENET (Abbé). Atlas portatif pour servir a l'intelligence des auteurs classiques. Par M. L'abbé Grenet professeur au Collège de Lisieux. Dedicated to the University of Paris. s.l., s.n., s.d. [1790]. In-folio, speckled calf, richly decorated smooth spine, red morocco title label. Illustrations include a black engraved title, a colored sphere plate and 93 colored maps. 5 maps are by Robert, the others are by Bonne and dated 1779-1790. Handwritten tables appear at the end: Table alphabétique des cartes qui composent cet atlas (5 pp.) and Table alphabétique de tous les pays du monde avec les degrés de Longitude, de Latitude et le numéro de la carte dans laquelle les trouvent (17 pp.). Rare in in folio format (the maps are not folded in the center as in the in-4) and even rarer with 93 maps; most copies of this atlas have only 29 maps, sometimes 44. An interesting geographical atlas for school use. The ambition of Abbé Grenet, professor at the Collège de Lisieux, was to extend the study of geography in colleges, a subject too often neglected at the time despite its importance for education. Maps depicting France, its regions and the different parts of the world were distributed to students at the start of the school year, but were also sold individually or in collections. The first edition was published in 1781, then reissued in 1784 with 44 maps. It was expanded over the years, and by the 1790s contained over 90 maps. This atlas is of interest for several reasons: it is one of the first, if not the first, work of its kind and quality to be intended for school use in France. The Carte générale de l'Amérique méridionale is the very first to show the changes that the Spanish and Portuguese have made to their possessions since the Peace Treaty of 1778. Also included is the very interesting Carte de la direction des vents généraux et des Moussons, particularly designed to explain ship navigation. In addition, the plates were brilliantly engraved on double pages by Perrier from charts drawn by Rigobert Bonne, then first hydrographer of the French Navy, who contributed to Nicolas Desmaret's famous Atlas encyclopédique. A fine copy, with old restorations to the binding and small leather chips on 2 corners.