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Description
LEVAILLANT (François).
Mr Le Vaillant’s Journey into the Interior of Africa, via the Cape of Good Hope, in the Years 1780, 81, 82, 83, 84 & 85. Paris: Leroy, 1790. — Second Journey into the Interior of Africa, via the Cape of Good Hope, in the years 1783, 84 and 85.
Paris: H. J. Jansen and Co., Year 3 of the Republic, One and Indivisible. — 2 works in 5 volumes, in-8, 199 × 123: frontispiece, xxiv, 383 pp., 5 plates; (1 f.), 403 pp., 6 plates (Voyage); (1 fol.), xliv, 304 pp., (1 fol.), 5 plates; 426 pp., (1 fol.), 8 plates; (2 fol.), 525 pp., (3 fol.), 9 plates. Rooted calfskin, with a triple gilt fillet framing the covers, plain decorated spine, yellow edges (Second Voyage) (contemporary binding).
First edition of these two travel accounts.
François Levaillant (1753–1824), a naturalist and traveller born in Paramaribo, Suriname (then Dutch Guiana), developed a passion for natural history at a very early age. Convinced that the Cape of Good Hope and southern Africa – regions of exceptional fertility – offered an ideal setting for his research, he undertook two major expeditions there. He brought back thousands of specimens of birds unknown in Europe, whilst conducting anthropological, ornithological and zoological studies. In particular, he was the first to provide a scientific description of the giraffe, a specimen of which he brought back and presented to Louis XVI.
- The first book recounts his first voyage (1780 to 1783), during which he explored the eastern Cape, observing landscapes and species then unknown in Europe. In it, he studied the Khoikhoi (Hottentots), describing their pastoral way of life, hunting techniques, language and beliefs, as well as the Xhosa and the Bushmen. The second volume provides an account of his second journey from 1783 to 1785.
This first journey is illustrated with a frontispiece and 11 plates depicting views and portraits of Hottentots and Xhosa, except for the last two, which depict a giraffe.
- The second volume describes Levaillant’s second journey (1783 to 1785) in detail. In it, he depicts various peoples who are now extinct or little known: the Houzouanas, the Small and Great Namaquois, the Caminouquois, the Karaquois, the Kabobiquois and the Gheyssiquois. The illustrations comprise 22 plates featuring landscapes, botanical subjects, wildlife and portraits of the Houzouanas and Namaquois.
In his book *Knowledge and Colonialism: Eighteenth-Century Travellers in South Africa*, on page 123, Siegfried Huigen writes that the ‘first account was probably edited by Casimir Varron (1761–1796), a Parisian man of letters, and the second by his father, who was born in France’, but that ‘as Le Vaillant’s personal travel journals have not been preserved, the actual influence of these editors on the texts remains uncertain’.
The general map of Levaillant’s travels is missing. This had been published separately and, as a result, is almost never found included.
A very fine copy in a uniform binding of the period.
Provenance:
Dr Robert Aubin, with bookplate.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale
Claude Mozis Library – Black Africa and the African diaspora
Auction location
Auction time
10/21/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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