About this Item
Two offprints discussing the researches of the French ethnographer Eugène de Froberville (1790-1871) in Mauritius on the languages and races of sub-equatorial East African, the first one published in Mauritius. The first is especially interesting, because it is an account of a lecture De Froberville gave at the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius, apparently on 8 February 1844, and his lecture does not appear to have been published on its own. The present account, comprising primarily long quotations from De Froberville's lecture (including an 11-page comparative table of East African languages), may therefore be the best record of his lecture.Bound before the offprints is a signed autograph letter from De Froberville, written in Port Louis, Mauritius, on 7 August 1846. It does not name the person he is addressing, but it seems likely to have been sent to Louis Bouton concerning his publication of De Froberville's lecture. A signed autograph note by Bouton on the first page of the 1846 offprint identifies him as the author of the parts that are not directly quoted from De Froberville.With the second offprint foxed, but both otherwise in very good condition. A rare record of early French research into East African languages.l Ad 1: WorldCat (1 copy, as issued in the proceedings); ad 2: Cohen, French encounter with Africans, p. 242 & note 86 on pp. 340-341; for De Froberville s work in Mauritius: Vaughan, Creating the Creole Island: slavery in eighteenth-century Mauritius (2005), p. 267. Offprint, with its own pagination, from Procès-verbaux de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Ile Maurice, du 6 octobre 1842 au 28 aou^t 1845, [1846]. [1], [1 blank], 16 pp. (numbered in manuscript). With: FLOURENS, Pierre, [Louis-Isidore?] DUPERREY and Etienne SERRES. [drop-title:] Rapport sur les races nègres de l Afrique Orientale au sud de l équateur, observées par M. de Froberville.(colophon: Paris, printed by Bachelier, [1850]). 14, [2 blank] pp.Offprint, with its own pagination, from Comptes rendus des séances de l Académie des Sciences, XXX (1850).Small folio (Froberville/Bouton) & large 8vo (Flourens) (25.5 x 18 cm).19th-century half black morocco, with spine title in gold (E. de Froberville - Les races nègres de l Afrique Orientale" and date "1846", chemical-marbled sides, Spanish-marbled endpapers, with the blue paper back wrapper of the second offprint, and a stub of its front wrapper, bound in. Seller Inventory # G9OI1W3IKBKI
Contact seller
Report this item