[CORMATIN, Pierre Marie Félicité Dezoteux de]. Travels of The Duke De Chatelet, in Portugal. Comprehending Interesting Particulars relative to the Colonies; the Earthquake of Lisbon; the Marquis de Pombal, and the Court. London, J. J. Stockdale, 1809.
8vo. Two volumes in one. Slightly later Portuguese diced calf, expertly rebacked, original gilt-tooled spine preserved; pp. viii, [17]-295; 244, [20, general index] (collation conforms with the one given by the National Library of Portugal); large folding map of Portugal, frontispiece to vol.II with view of the Bay of Lisbon; rubbing to extremities, foxing to map and preliminaries and frontispiece of vol.II, else a very good copy; provenance: engraved bookplate of H. Silvester inside front cover.
Very rare first English edition, translated from the French (first, 1798) and updated by J. Fr. Bourgoing. The author Baron de Cormatin was a French officer and supporter of the Revolution who placed his manuscript in the library of the Duc de Chatelet, which led to confusion about the authorship. The work is a complete topography of the motherland and the Portuguese colonies on the other side of the Atlantic. Information on Portugal was much in demand in Britain, due to the Peninsular War (the decisive second battle of Porto ended with an Anglo-Portuguese victory in May 1809), trade relations and the settlement of the entire court of Lisbon in Brazil, which made Rio de Janeiro the capital of Portugal from 1808 until 1821, and opened up important trade for Britain with the largest country in Latin America.
Provenance: We believe that this copy belonged to a member of the family of the naval officer Sir Philip Carteret, second baronet Silvester (1777–1828), who in 1812 was stationed in Lisbon onboard the 46-gun frigate Pomone.
Abbey, Travel, 220; See Borba De Moraes p. 179 for the French edition on 1797 only ('a classic work'); COPAC locates merely three copies in Britain, at the National Trust, King's College and in the BL.
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