Posters advertising books such as this very rarely survive and are not only a reflection of publication history but also of the French public’s interests and appetites.
This four-volume work promises biographies of the most important explorers from the age of Christ until the nineteenth century. Indeed, the publication date of the work neatly corresponds with the return of Gaston de Roquemaurel’s circumnavigation on the La Capricieuse (1850-1854) which was the last grand voyage under sail.
The list of explorers named on the poster are a roll-call of the great and good: Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, Vasco de Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, Hernan Cortez (!), Willem Barentz, Francis Drake, Jacques Cartier, Louis Antoine Bougainville, James Cook, and Jean-François La Perouse. The illustrations include indigenous peoples from Vanuatu, the Marquesas, California, Egypt, Persepolis, and, of real interest for a French publication, Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii, the site of James Cook’s death.
Édouard Charton (1807-1890) was a vital figure in French literary circles and notably co-founded Le Magasin pittoresque and served as its editor for fifty-five years. He was instrumental in the establishment of the illustrated French press, which is reflected in the title of his journal. Le Magasin pittoresque‘s publisher, Alexandre Lachevardiere, was the first to import a steam-driven press to France in 1832. This feeds directly into the Comte de Saint-Simon’s ideas on the social utility of art and radically changed the nature of newspapers, magazines and journals and indeed public education.
In a letter to his friend Jean-Louis Renaudot, Charton encapsulates this sentiment beautifully: “Let us raise the intelligence of our fellow citizens and we will witness the beginning of the reign of equality.” A publication such as this is emblematic of that way of thinking: this broadside advertising it even more so.
No copies on OCLC.
Charton, E., Correspondance Générale, Vol. 1, (Pairs, 2002), pp.1051-51; Mainardi, P., “The Invention of the Illustrated Press in France” in French Politics, Culture & Society, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring, 2017), pp.34-48.
