Roselly de Lorgues - Christophe Colomb - 1879

Lorgues, Roselly de. Christophe Colomb.

Illustrated edition with varied borders on every page, a colored frontispiece, 4 chromolithographs and a map.

Paris / Brussels, Société Générale de Librairie catholique / Victor Palmé editor / Joseph Albanel. 1879. In-4. XXV + 580 pages. Half red morocco binding by the publisher with cardboard-covered boards. Covers and spine richly illustrated: a large gold and black plate with a motif of an anchor, a ship (caravel) and a globe showing America. Souze plate. Engel binder. Gilded edges. Emile Martinet printer.

First illustrated edition with 5 chromolithographies (including the frontispiece), a color map on double page, all pages within a wide engraved frame with scenes of seafaring, landscapes, and monuments that are renewed on every page. A sturdy volume and in beautiful condition aside from a few rubs, notably at the back and at the headcaps (see photos). Interior very white (some usual foxing on the double-page map).

This work helped to make Christopher Columbus known with this first hagiography: “It was in 1856. A man, at that time, perceived the monstrosity under which the world lived in peace and went about its business. Christopher Columbus literally had no history. Transported with shame for the human race, this man [Roselly de Lorgues], who was a writer of the highest talent, resolved to wrench, as far as his powers allowed, Christopher Columbus from the destiny of silence and ingratitude that had weighed for nearly four centuries on his memory, and which had placed the grandeur of forgetfulness in proportion to the greatness of the service rendered to the entire world. Until then, scant notices, lying or derisive, scratched on Christopher Columbus, had shown that they were worthy of the hands that had erased his name to replace it with another on his grandiose discovery… and, for the first time, the life of Christopher Columbus was written … Christophe Colomb and Roselly de Lorgues, each in his own right, will reach the same immortality in their shared contribution… », wrote Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly in his preface to Léon Bloy’s work “Le révélateur du globe.”

Jules Verne would also at this time publish a bibliography of Christopher Columbus at Hetzel in the Bibliothèque blanche (1882) which had more modest success.

A ravishing work in its first illustrated edition in its magnificent luxury half-morocco binding…