Binding signed Capé - Lot 328

Binding signed Capé DUREAU-DELAMALLE (Adolphe Jules César Auguste) Les Pyrénées, poème, précédé d'un voyage à Vignemale et d'une description des vallées d'Azun, de Cauterets et de Lutour. Paris, Giguet et Michaud, 1808. In-12: XVI, 126pp. ½ red filleted morocco with corners signed CAPÉ, spine ribbed and decorated, gilt head. A fine copy. The Voyage dates from 1807, and is recounted in prose in the first 74 pages, the rest being devoted to the "Poem". His account of the Vignemale ascent may be fanciful, but it is nonetheless one of the earliest accounts of this prestigious peak. This Pyrenean curiosity, which Jacques Labarère describes as "very rare", is, as BERALDI says, "characteristic of the Pyrenean empire style". DUREAU de LA MALLE (1777-1857) had already practised his art in 1807, when he published a "Géographie physique de la Mer Noire" (Physical Geography of the Black Sea), without ever having been there. "In fact, he worked a bit in all directions, not neglecting poetry but not excelling in any subject". The Opale catalog is a little hasty in attributing to him the translation of the OEuvres de Salluste by his father Jean Baptiste Joseph René, who also translated Tacitus. Our Adolphe also translated Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, which isn't bad at all! Provenance: Albert Pascal's printed bookplate.