#O46
[1800]
Nouvelle Edition. Quarto (26 x 20 cm). 16 pp. With a folding engraved outline hand colored map and sixteen engraved plates (many folding). Handsome period brown gilt tooled quarter calf with red gilt lettered morocco labels and marbled boards. Occasional very mild foxing, otherwise a very good copy.
Atlas to the third edition of Histoire de Russie (earlier editions were published without separate atlas). The folding map drawn by A. Brue shows European Russia and the Caucasus. The plates depict views, temples and buildings mostly of the region of Volga, Ural Mountains and Kirghiz steppes. Among them are the ruins of the ancient city of Bolghar and of the mysterious Buddhist monastery Ablaikit in vicinity of Ust-Kamenogorsk in modern Kazakhstan. Ablaikit was built by a Kalmyk khan in 1654-1656 and was destroyed in 1670. At the beginning of the 18th century there were still sculptures and pictures in the monastery’s temple. Manuscripts found there in 1720 were sent to Saint Petersburg. The plates include a general view, topographical plan and interior view of the temple of Ablaikit. Costumes of Kasimov Tatars, Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Mordvinians, Kalmyks, Tshouvach, Mongols and Kirghiz are also included.
Pierre Charles Levesque was a French historian, philosopher and moralist, initially engraver. He lived in Russia for seven years working as a teacher in the Cadet Corps and the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. His "Histoire de Russie" was recognized as the most significant research on Russian history written by a foreign scientist in the 18th century. It was widely popular in Russia before Nikolai Karamzin published his famous work, and kept its scientific significance until the end of the 19th century. Levesque was the first author who based his work mostly on Russian sources and historical works. For his achievements Levesque was accepted as a member of Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-letters (1789) and taught history in Collège de France (Nouvelle Biographie Générale, vol. 31, 38-39).
