Viquesnel A.: “Voyage dans la Turquie d Europe,Description Physique et Geologique de la THRACE “.Paris 1856-1868

First and only edition. Folio 32x26cm and Imperial Folio 56x38cm. Complete two volumes of text in Folio and one Atlas in Imperial Folio, later leather over boards imitating mid 19th century binding preserving, in Atlas, the contemporary paper covers of livraisons, complete half-titles,636p.,544p.for the text volumes and 34 Imperial Folio plates for the Atlas (one double page,4 partially colored),two-three pages of text in volume two with some spotting, all text and plates clean and bright, a very good plus set of an extremely rare work.

Auguste Viquesnel (1803-1867) a French geographer, ethnologist and geologist  was the first real explorer of Thrace. During 1847-48 undertook a two years travel all around the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia and Thrace. His scientific travel account is an extremely detailed and comprehensive study of the Ottoman controlled  provinces to the west of Constantinople, with careful notes on indigenous population, economics, religion, politics and topography. The Atlas started to be published separately in livraisons in 1855 and took 8 years to be accomplished. It contains mostly maps of Thrace. They are the very first accurate maps of several regions of Thrace and in a large scale. The text had been published separately in 1868.All these  publications were in very small print run, as scientific books, and became soon very rare. Occasionally some maps may appear , but the complete set had appeared only once the last twenty years. Atabey 1299,not in Blackmer. Monumental work, still the basic earlier scientific reference for Thrace. Extremely rare