GOLOVNIN (Vasili). Voyage de M. Golovnin, capitaine de vaiss - Lot 105

GOLOVNIN (Vasili). Voyage de M. Golovnin, capitaine de vaisseau de la marine impériale de Russie, contenant le récit de sa captivité chez les Japonais pendant les années 1811, 1812 et 1813, et ses observations sur l'empire du japon, suivi de la relation du voyage de M. Ricord, capitaine de vaisseau de la marine impériale de Russie, aux côtes du Japon en 1812 et 1813, etc. Translated by J.-B.-B. Eyriès. P., Gide, 1818. 2 vols. in-8, one portrait, (2) ff, VI, 396 pp. and (2) ff, 452 pp. and one map, long-grained red morocco, spines decorated with flowers and foliage, boards framed with wide lace, coat of arms, inner dent, green moire endpapers, gilt tr. (Rel. Pr Bradel). Rare first edition of the French translation by Eyriès. It features a frontispiece portrait and a large folded out-of-text map of the Kuril archipelago. A Russian explorer imprisoned by the Japanese. Vasili Golovnin (1776-1831) was commissioned by Tsar Alexander I to map Russia's eastern coasts and islands close to Japan, and arrived in Kamchatka in 1809. The following year, while exploring the Kuril Islands claimed by both nations, he was taken prisoner by the Japanese. He was not released until 1813. Golovnin took advantage of his captivity to study Japanese mores, science, industry and trade, thanks in particular to his exchanges with Japanese scholars, who in turn were eager to enrich their knowledge of the Western world. At the end, we find the account of Captain Ricord, Golovnin's companion, who negotiated the release of the prisoners. SUPERB EXEMPLAIRE, in a fresh binding signed by Bradel, with the arms of the Duchess de Berry. Ex-libris of the Rosny bibl., No. 1411 of the sale catalogue. (Lada-Mocarski, no. 82, about Golovnin's Voyage autour du monde published in St. Petersburg in 1822: "Vasili Mikhailovitch Golovnin, one of the outstanding Russian naval officers of the nineteenth century, made several voyages to the North Pacific and the Northeast coast of America. He has left valuable accounts of his voyages" (Chadenat, I, 581: "Importante relation" - Cordier, Japonica, 464-465).