Vincent/Billecocq - Voyage de Nearque - 1800

VINCENT (William) / BILLECOCQ (J. B. L., Translator). Voyage of Nearchus, from the mouths of the Indus to the Euphrates, or Journal of the expedition of Alexander’s fleet... Paris, Imprimerie de Crapelet, at Maradan, 1800 (An VIII / 1800). [360p.;434p.;431p.]

Original French edition in-8 complete in 3 volumes. The work is adorned with a frontispiece engraved by Alexandre Cardon and with folding geographical and historical maps finely engraved (notably the Carte de d’Anville with the Panj‑Ab of Arrian and the coast of Mekran, and the sketch of the Indus river).

Full contemporary dark morocco, plain spine richly ornamented with gold suns and geometric motifs, title pieces in red morocco and volume labels in blond leather (“1”, “2”, “3”). Blue marbled edges. Superb condition, minor wear from use.

This monument of ancient geography recounts one of the boldest epics of antiquity: the return voyage of the Macedonian fleet commanded by Admiral Nearchus, from the mouth of the Indus through the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf to the Euphrates, in 325–324 BC. Commissioned by Alexander the Great to explore the maritime routes between India and Mesopotamia, this expedition constituted the first great scientific and military navigation undertaken by Westerners in those unknown seas.

The English scholar William Vincent made a magistral critical analysis at the end of the eighteenth century, translated here into French under the Consulate by the jurist J. B. L. Billecocq and printed by the prestigious printer Crapelet in An VIII (1800). In the height of the neoclassical era, the figure of Alexander the Great and the discovery of the frontiers of Asia fascinated French savants, captivated by the junction between ancient military history and the advances of modern cartography.