Voyage dans la Russie Méridionale, et particulièrement dans les provinces situées au-delà du Caucase, fait depuis 1820 jusqu’en 1824.

The most important early work focusing on the Caucasus, noted for the quality of both the text and the illustrations.

A fine example in boards, complete with the text volumes and the large, impressive view of Tbilisi.

Frenchman Jacques François Gamba (1763-1833) made two voyages to Russia, that of 1817 at the orders of the Duc de Richelieu, former governor of Odessa, and he became consul at Tiflis in 1823. Taking advantage of the easing of Russian embargoes in the Transcaucasian regions, he developed new trade relationships for the French government. He was favoured by the Russian High Commissioner of the Caucasus, Aleksei Petrovich Yermolov; Tsar Alexander I allotted him over 60 square miles of lands and forests in the Imereti region and supported his research and entrepreneurship. The Frenchman genuinely fell in love with his new land and paid tribute to the beauty of the Kutaisi district (see Vol. I, 240).

Gamba's predecessors explored the edges of the Caucasus, approaching it from the sea, either from the Greek or the Persian side, but not really attempting to go through the heart of the region (unless forced to do so, like Jan Struys, who was enslaved in Dagestan and left brief accounts of Shamakhi and Tbilisi (then in Persia).

Gamba's work is the first to uncover further territories beyond Crimea and Circassia, with a detailed account of the North and South Caucasus, including Mozdok and Vladikavkaz: the Frenchman was one of the first travellers to benefit from the Georgian Military Highway, completed under Yermolov's supervision in 1817. He starts with the Crimean outposts mentioned by his predecessors, Pallas, Guthrie, Reuilly, Clarke in particular (Kerch, Kuban, the Circassian border), and then proceeds onto the areas explored very little at the time: Kutaisi, Racha in Imereti, Akhalzik, Mount Elbrus, Mozdok, Telavi, as well as lands along the Persian border (Elizabetpol, the Shirvan Khanate).

Gamba's ground-breaking book was the first to publish great views of the region, significant for their quality and their quantity – including especially the famous large view of Tbilisi, the first such, beautifully rendered in lithography. The other fine plates illustrate the shores of the Black Sea and the Caucasus and include natural history subjects, views and, mostly, native peoples in hand-coloured lithographs. The work also includes maps of the region, some large folding ones.

The account itself is wide-ranging, informed and analytic. It offers an important European perspective on the previously closed provinces of the Caucasus, on the brink of Russian colonisation. " Gamba parcourut cette contrée dans tous les sens, y recueillant un grand nombre de documents utiles sous le rapport du commerce et de l'industrie " (Hoefer). This was hailed in Russia too at the time, by the influential Russian periodical Moskovskii Telegraf, which noted the importance of Gamba's account of the trade in Odessa and the trade routes between Mingrelia and the Black Sea ports. The Russian critic commended Gamba's "new and interesting" descriptions of Sevastopol, Sukhumi, Derbent (Dagestan), Astrakhan and the Imereti region.

The work is also remarkable for its ethnographic observations, illustrated with more than 30 plates in colour. For example, Gamba gives a rare account, in vol. 2, of the Ingush people and of the ethnic Ossetians in Kobi and Mtskheta-Mtianeti region of Georgia. Quoting Klaproth on the Ossetians belonging to the Indo-Germanic race, Gamba then mentions their talent at carpet weaving and brewing beer.

Overall, the work gives a comprehensive insight into the history, geography and population of the territories of modern Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. In this, he is preceded only by Chardin, who travelled through the Ottoman Empire, Georgia, Armenia and Persia in 1664-73, but did not provide any illustrations, nor, unlike Gamba, noted the economic potential of the region.

'Ochen redkoe i krasivoe izdanie [Very rare and beautiful edition]' (Solovev, marking it 80 rub.).

Description

Two volumes 8vo (21 x 13.5 cm) and a portfolio small folio (37 x 28.5 cm). Text: half-title, title, lx pp., large folding map drawn and engr. by Darmet, hand-coloured in outline, and 444 pp. with another engr. folding map and a folding letterpress table; half-title, title and 480 pp. with two folding maps engraved by Darmet and handcoloured in outline

Atlas: title, list of plates and 60 plates as per list including 34 with original hand-colour, that is: one double-page map drawn and engr. by Darmet, 14 lithographs of views incl. one large folding, 35 lith. of costumes and scenes incl. 33 hand-coloured, one hand-col. lith. of natural history (animals), 8 engraved plates of maps (2) and plans, one lithograph of agricultural tools, the lithographs by Engelmann mostly (costumes and large view), Langlumé and Bernard, after Chopin mostly (costumes) and others, the engravings engraved by Normand fils after Meissner.

Binding

Text in contemporary pink boards, possibly the publisher's, flat spines with green labels lettered in gilt, speckled edges; atlas in original publisher's printed boards.

Condition

Text: some foxing, sometimes heavier, small closed tear to large map; bindings with some discoloration, a bit rubbed, more at extremities, a puncture to upper cover of vol.1, spines extremities chipped. Atlas: most plates uncut, rare light foxing or soiling, a plate a bit browned, long closed tear skillfully restored in the large folding view, some pencil captions; binding a bit soiled and rubbed, spine and corners skillfully renewed, ties lacking. Overall a fresh, crisp and attractive example.

Bibliographical references

Hoefer XIX 382-3 ("savant ouvrage"); Moskovskii Telegraf Vol. 17, 1827, p. 230; Solovev cat. 105, 321 ; Edith Ybert-Chabrier, "From Jean-François Gamba to Jules Mourier. French Interest on Imereti and Mingrelia". 2013, 2nd International symposium. Georgian Manuscripts, Nouvelles Annales Des Voyages, de la Géographie Et de L'histoire Ou Recueil Des Relations Originales Inédites, Volume 30, 1826, 263-4.