Live auction - Lot 101
[Voyage imaginaire & Utopie]
Voyage de Robertson, aux terres australes, traduit sur le manuscrit anglois.
Amsterdam [i.e. Paris ?], s.n., 1767
€ 150 / 250
Live bidding (Drouot*) Live bidding (Invaluable*)Bidding is closed
Lot description
12mo: [4]-474 pp. (title partly detached, occ. foxing).
Contemp. marbled calf, gilt orn. spine with raised bands, marbled edges (upper joint split).
Second edition (1st ed.: 1766) of this Australian utopian novel, often attributed to Louis-Sébastien Mercier. This work relates the journey of the pseudo Robertson who accompanied Drake on his voyage to the southern lands, his arrival in Australia, his meeting with indigenous people and the discussions on their ideal society and Europeans (the author criticising them). From p. 146, text of Merci against the "pansophistes", i.e. the encyclopedists.
Ref. Barbier IV:1078.