Half leather marbled paper covered boards, with gold stamped spine title: Description de l'Egypte. Atlas geographique., Atlas volume only. Contains the famous 47 sheet Carte topographique de l'Egypte of 1808 and the 3 sheet Carte geographique de l'Egypte of 1817. This copy has larger paper size than usual, and the separate three sheet map of Egypt has the three sheets unjoined. The maps show the course of the Nile from its source to the Mediterranean, in remarkable detail, with all names in French and Arabic. These maps remained the most accurate of the area until the British surveys of 1907. Another, updated edition was printed lithographically in 1882. The publishing history of the atlas is difficult to determine. Godlewska's article in the Map Collector says it was first published as the Atlas de l'Egypte in 1828. This copy's title page says 2nd ed. and was published in 1826. The full set of the Description de l'Egypte contained 21 volumes of text and plates and the Atlas volume. The text volumes appeared earlier, in starting in 1809, but the atlas volume was delayed until 1826/28. Probably, this atlas volume accompanied the 2nd ed. of the text (which, according the CABO was published simultaneously with the 1st ed.) but was in fact the 1st ed. of the atlas, as the atlas that accompanied the 1st ed. of the text did not appear until 1828. In any event, both editions of the atlas were published from the same plates (CABO)., Map Collector No. 24, pp. 2-8; Sotheby's Natural History, Atlas & Travel, December 7, 1993, lot 322.
