Voyage a la Martinique: contenant diverses observations sur la physique, l'histoire naturelle, l'agriculture, les moeurs, & les usages de cette isle, faites en 1751 & dans les années suivantes: lu à l'Académie royale des sciences de Paris en 1761

[8]+viii+135+[46]+[1]+136-192+[80] pagination of this work is erratic, but this copy complete with folding map. Quarto (10 1/4" x 8") bound in contemporary calf, edges stained red, marbled endpapers with five raised spine bands. (Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection 247. Sabin 11936. JCB (1)III:1346.) First edition.

Jean-Baptiste Thibault de Chanvalon father having died shortly after his birth, he was sent to live with his grandparents in France, studied there and became a lawyer in 1742. He left for Paris to study science with Réaumur and Antoine de Jussieu. He became an ordinary member of the Academy of Bordeaux in 1748. He left Paris for Martinique in 1751, where he took over the management of his father's house in Rivière-Pilote. He was a member of the Superior Council of the island of Martinique and responsible for drawing up statistics. He published Voyage à la Martinique (1763), which presented the astonishing description of the "Americans", and displayed a taste for Locke and the creation of Pennsylvania. Chanvalon also distinguished himself as a botanist and gave his name to a genus of shrubs and shrubs, of the vaccinia family, comprising more than 40 species which grow on the mountains of the tropical regions of the two hemispheres and which is called the Underlay (thibaudia). A hurricane destroyed his house on the night of 12 to September 13, 1756. Following this destruction, he decided to return to France and was taken prisoner during this trip by the English. Quickly released and back in Paris, he presented in 1761 to the Academy of Sciences notes on his work " Voyage à la Martinique (1751-1756) ".

Condition:

The binding with worn joints and small losses to tips and corners, lacks lettering label, possibly rebacked. one signature laid-in at pages 27-36 (likely cancel leaves), light spotting and old stains, modern book label at front paste down, staining to preliminary leaves else good.