À Madame L. de Freycinet.

A$35,000 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Île-de-France [Mauritius, Port-Louis] : Imprimerie de Mallac frères, 25 May 1818. Quarto (250 x 194 mm), 2 pp., letterpress, recto and verso of a single loose leaf; light horizontal fold, a fine example. This extremely rare and precious document one of only three copies known is a poetic tribute to the adventurer Rose de Freycinet (1794-1832), wife of navigator Louis de Freycinet. It was written and published by Jacques Mallac, a Mauritian Creole printer who took his inspiration from an encounter with Rose during the voyage of the Uranie (1817-1820). The 55-line panegyric by Jacques Mallac (1772-1827) was printed on his press in Port-Louis, Mauritius. It is signed at the end J.M. and dated 25 May 1818. The sheet features a typographical border, the royal crest of France at the head, and a colophon vignette depicting a three-masted ship likely the French corvette Uranie . There was a clandestine aspect to the Uranie voyage, for when Louis de Freycinet’s expedition departed Toulon on 17 September 1817, the 22-year-old Madame Rose de Saulces de Freycinet (née Pinon) was on the Uranie , having been smuggled aboard in men s clothing. She had disguised herself to join her husband, the geographer Louis de Freycinet. His expedition, whose objectives were largely scientific in nature, would visit Brazil, Mauritius, Western Australia, New South Wales, Hawaii, Timor, New Guinea, and other Pacific Islands on its three-year circumnavigation. In recognition of his wife s courage, Louis wou

• Binding: Hardcover

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