Voyage pittoresque et historique de l'Istrie et Dalmatie.

Folio: [4]-viii-190-[1] pp.; 69 pl. (marg. damp stains in begin. and at end, some pp. age-toned or browned, one pl. sl. browned, marg. foxing).

Orig. cardboard, flat spine with printed label (rubbed, head and tail def., spine faded). Untrimmed copy.

First edition and first issue of the illustrations by/or under Née's direction after the drawings of Louis François Cassas: engr. title, frontispiece, double-page map, 66 plates (some fold. or on double-pp.) and 3 historiated headpieces. Figuring Trieste, Predjama castle, the Pula Arena, Diocletian's Palace in Split, waterfalls, etc. The painter Cassas (1756-1827) "visited Istria and Dalmatia in 1782 when he was commissioned to make drawings of the antiquities in the area by "une société d'amateurs des beaux arts"" (cfr Blackmer). The text by the polygraph Joseph Lavallée (1747-1816) is divided in two parts: 1st is a general history of Istria and Dalmatia and 2nd is edited from Cassas' journal of the voyage.
Ref. The Blackmer coll., 456. - Cohen 205. - Kat. Berlin 1910.
Prov. [Castle of Duras].