Autori Vari - California, Alaska, Bering E Le Esplorazioni Russe - 1750

CALIFORNIA, ALASKA, BERING AND RUSSIAN EXPLORATIONS - CHART OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC
Particularly interesting is the geographical map titled “OCEAN SEPTENTRIONAL,” inserted between pages 296 and 297 of the manuscript. The map depicts the northern Pacific and the regions between northeastern Asia and northwestern America, illustrating the still uncertain geographical knowledge of the 18th century.
The accompanying manuscript text explicitly mentions Captain Vitus Bering, his voyage to Kamchatka, and the explorations conducted to identify lands situated to the east of Siberia. It also speaks of California, Hudson Bay, and the communications between Asian and American territories.
The map is especially significant because it testifies to a crucial phase in the history of exploration: the period when European geographers sought to determine the actual configuration of the northern Pacific and the geographic separation between Asia and America.
The cartographic heading attributes the drawing to the latest discoveries of Russian navigators, reflecting the growing European interest in the expeditions promoted by the Russian Empire.
The presence of a map inserted within a long manuscript collection represents a bibliographic element of notable charm. It documents the interaction between manuscript culture, scientific cartography, and the dissemination of geographic discoveries during the Enlightenment.
The combination of the manuscript commentary with the cartographic representation enhances the historical interest of the specimen, especially for collectors of evidence relating to Bering, Kamchatka, Russian explorations, and the discovery of the northern Pacific.
ABSTRACT
Extraordinary French manuscript collection of the 18th century, consisting of six imposing quarto volumes and about 3,000 pages of literary, philosophical, scientific, and satirical texts. Over 400 compositions provide an extraordinarily varied fresco of Enlightenment culture, from reflections on happiness to medical curiosities, from intellectual controversies to occasional poetry. Written in two different scripts, this vast archive preserves testimonies by famous, minor, and sometimes entirely unknown authors. Particularly interesting is the provenance from the physician Hervé Fouace, who died in 1773, which places the collection in the cultured milieu of pre-revolutionary France.
The collection includes epistles, letters, poems, philosophical discourses, parodies, cantatas, satires, dissertations, and scientific curiosities. The texts range from the great questions of the Enlightenment to the more unusual aspects of 18th-century daily life.
WHY TO BUY
Rare map titled “OCEAN SEPTENTRIONAL,” inserted between pages 296 and 297 of the manuscript. The map represents the northern Pacific and the regions between northeastern Asia and northwestern America
A manuscript collection of notable historical and collecting interest, characterized by its breadth of content, the variety of topics, and its preservation in six volumes.
The presence of more than 400 texts, some attributed to unknown authors, offers interesting possibilities for bibliographic and philological research. The manuscript transmission of occasional and ephemeral works constitutes one of the collection’s most significant aspects.
Particularly appreciable are the readability of the two scripts, the contemporary full-parchment bindings with decorative gold-impressed motifs, and the 18th-century medical provenance.
MARKET VALUE
The documented antiquarian catalog proposed the collection at 2,500 euros.
A prudent commercial estimate may place it roughly between 2,500 and 3,000 euros.
The confirmed presence of unknown works or works of particular historical significance could significantly alter its value.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
France, circa 1750. Six manuscript volumes in quarto, full calfskin with a marbled pattern, spines with raised bands and gold-pressed decorations, title labels in brown morocco, signs of use.
Volume I: (1) f.; 508 pp.; (3) ff.
Volume II: 491 pp.; (1) p. white; (3) ff.
Volume III: 536 pp.; (1) f.
Volume IV: 522 pp.; (5) ff.
Volume V: (1) f.; 509 pp.; (1) p. white.
Volume VI: (5) ff.; 491 pp.; (3) ff.
Total: 3,057 pages numbered, in addition to preliminary and final leaves.
Manuscripts written in two different hands, both highly legible.
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Recueil manuscrit de pièces.
France, circa 1750.
Six manuscript volumes containing over 400 compositions by different authors, identified and anonymous.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The collection constitutes a testimony to the manuscript circulation of French culture during the Age of Enlightenment.
Alongside the diffusion of printed works, the 18th century saw a flourishing in manuscript production destined for educated environments, academies, literary circles, and private libraries.
Anthologies like this allowed the preservation of occasional texts, satirical compositions, letters, dissertations, and reflections that did not necessarily reach publication.
Among the topics documented are:
Lettre à Mr LF containing the description of the Grand-Ville cave in Périgord.
Examen de cette question: y-t-il quelque-chose de nouveau sous le soleil?
Reflections on the happiness of life.
Epigraph of a drunkard.
Letter written on the use one may make of music on health.
Dissertation by Mr M., ordinary physician to the King, on the subject of an hermaphrodite.
These examples testify to the extraordinary breadth of interests represented: moral philosophy, scientific observation, medicine, natural curiosities, satire and manners.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
No single author or compiler is identified.
However, provenance from Hervé Fouace, a physician practicing in Carentan who died in 1773, is noted.
The name Duferage is also associated with the provenance of the collection.
The link with a physician of the 18th century is particularly interesting in relation to the presence of scientific writings and dissertations on health matters.
MANUSCRIPT HISTORY
The collection is dated approximately to 1750.
The manuscripts were produced in two different hands, suggesting the participation of at least two copyists in forming the whole.
Each volume contains a considerable number of texts, roughly between sixty and a hundred and thirty.
The exact origin of the individual documents, their possible derivation from printed sources, and the possible presence of unpublished texts require analytical study.
RARITY
The most interesting element is not only the antiquity of the manuscripts but the survival of a vast coherent collection of eighteenth-century texts.
The complex represents a potentially important source for the study of French literary and scientific culture.
The presence of over 400 compositions, sometimes anonymous or attributed to little-known authors, makes plausible the existence of poorly documented textual testimonies, without currently being able to assert their unpublished status.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Antiquarian description in French, Recueil manuscrit de pièces, circa 1750, six volumes
PERCHÉ ABBIAMO SCELTO QUEST'OPERA
We selected this ensemble for its ability to provide a direct testimony of French intellectual life in the full 18th century.
This is not a single literary work, but a manuscript library of ideas, observations, discussions, and curiosities spanning the entire educated society of the era.
The monumental scale of the collection, the heterogeneity of contents, the historic bindings, and the documented provenance make it an object of particular interest for manuscript collectors, Enlightenment scholars, and specialist libraries.
In old books, any AI visualizations are intended for illustrative purposes only. The original photographs document the actual characteristics, conditions, and peculiarities of the specimen.