Léon Galibert et Clément Pellé - Angleterre - 1842

GALIBERT (Léon) and PELLÉ (Clément). England. Paris, Firmin Didot frères, 1842. 3 volumes in-8, text in two columns, 488 p., 560 p., 469 p., blue night crushed morocco, smooth spine entirely ornamented with large golden romantic devices (palmettes, scrolls and volutes forming a frame), title and volume numbers in gold, the imprint “G. CURÉ” struck on foot, boards of black speckled paper (period binding).

First edition.

Published in the collection "L’Univers, Histoire et description de tous les peuples, entreprise encyclopédique" of the Didots, the work is by two editors of the British Review, a periodical that disseminated in France the best of the English press. Léon Galibert (1803-1865), historian from Narbonne, would later publish L’Algérie ancienne et moderne (1844) and a History of the Republic of Venice (1847); Clément Pellé is also the author of the pamphlet Dotation et opposition (1844).

The work traces the history of England through major periods: Saxon era, Norman conquest, Plantagenets, Tudors, Stuarts, up to the House of Hanover and the early years of Victoria’s reign. The political narrative is complemented by chapters on institutions, manners, arts, and the economy. The complete edition includes a fourth volume (1844) devoted to Scotland and Ireland, absent here; the whole is illustrated with about 200 engravings and folded maps.

Light wear to the bindings, rare foxing and other minor defects, good overall condition. The blue night-crushed morocco, fragile and rarely preserved with such brightness, highlights the remarkably sharp gilded tooling.