[CHASTENET-PUYSÉGUR (Antoine-Hyacinthe-Anne) Comte de].
Détail sur la Navigation aux côtes de Saint-Domingue et dans ses Débouquemens.
PRESENTED BY THE FORMER GOVERNOR GENERAL
An important ruttier of sailing instructions pertaining to the seas around Saint-Domingue, modern day Haiti. This copy presented on behalf of the Minister of the French Navy to Danish astronomer Thomas Bugge (1740 - 1815). At the time of the publication of the second text bound into the volume, 1788, the Minister of the French Navy was César Henri comte de La Luzerne. This book would have been a particularly relevant gift, as he had just returned to France after two years serving as the governor general of Saint-Domingue.
The book itself was the product of a 1784-85 surveying expedition undertaken at the behest of the French government by naval cartographer Antoine-Hyacinthe Chastenet-Puységur. It details the coastlines and conditions of the island, and would have served as a vital supplement to the atlas of navigational charts, Le pilote de l’isle de Saint-Domingue et des de´bouquemens de cette isle published in 1788. The second title, concerning a particular chart of Gonave, is often found bound together with this text.
Provenance: Contemporary gift inscription “Offert à Monsiere Bugge Directeure de l’observatoire de Danemark à Copenhague de la part du Ministre de la Marine de France”. With the Mariens Bibliotek ex-library stamps to ffep and title-page.
JCB (I) 3116; Sabin, 12235.
