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elephant folio (570mm x 440mm), engraved frontispiece showing a View of Tarragona taken on the Road to Barcelona, large engraved vignette title page, 72 pages of text, with 83 other finely engraved plates on 67 leaves, showing wonderful views, plans & architectural details of towns, villages and famous buildings in Catalonia, Spain. Three plates with closed tears (see full listing of plates below for more details), but plates overall are very good clean rich impressions, the upper board cover only is present but detached. Overall a wonderful collection of plates on Catalonia from one of the most famous and sought after illustrated works on Spain. One of the most famous illustrated works on Spain beautifully illustrated with magnificent engraved views, etc., by Alexandre Louis Joseph Laborde (1774-1842). The author describes monuments from the Roman civilization, continues with Arab sites from the Middle Ages, and at the end he pays attention to the present. There is an extensive historical explanation and each plate is accompanied with a short explanatory text. Comte Alexandre Louis Joseph de Laborde (1774-1842) was a French antiquary, liberal politician and writer, a member of the Academie des Sciences morales et politiques (1832) under the rubric political economy. Born in Paris, Laborde was the fourth son of the famous banker of Spanish extraction, Jean-Joseph de Laborde, who was guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Young Laborde had been dispatched to Vienna by his father at the outbreak of the French Revolution; there he joined the Austrian army, in which he was named an officer, 10 December 1789, at the age of seventeen, by personal intervention of the Emperor Joseph II. After having served the Emperor Joseph II in Vienna, and having distinguished himself in the Imperial Army, Alexandre Laborde returned to his fatherland and started to develop a taste for the arts. He travelled to the United Kingdom, Holland, Italy and Spain. His travels and his studies earned him a special place in the world of archeology and literature. Spain made a great, wonderful, and mysterious impression on him where he found the remains of Roman civilization, and of two peoples and religions, the Arabs and the Spaniards. He was part of Lucien Bonaparte's embassy in 1800 and 1801, and his intimate relations with the minister provided him the means to achieve his goal. He travelled around the country with several artists, himself drawing what he thought were the most interesting sights. All of this resulted in the publication of Itinéraire de l'Espagne, followed by the present Voyage pittoresque et historique en Espagne. He was named to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres 21 March 1816, in the reorganization of the Institut de France. From 1818 to 1824, he served in the National Assembly, where he opposed the reinstallation of Ferdinand VII to the throne of Spain at the time of Trocadero (1823), with the eventual result that he found the leisure for a four-year tour of Italy, Greece, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt in the company of his son Leon de Laborde. He served as Député and as Préfet of the Seine (1830), and as a supporter of Louis-Philippe in the Revolution of 1830 as a general Garde nationale and aide-de-camp of the king, who sent him to Spain as ambassador. From 1831 to 1837 he served as Deputy for the Seine, in 1837 as Deputy for Seine-et-Oise. He died at Paris in 1842. The engravings of Catalonia include fine views in and around Barcelona; Tarragona; Mont-Serrat; Girona; Olerdola; Lerida; Amposta, etc. A full list of plates is available on request. Seller Inventory # 3412
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