Rare first edition of a historical-geographical travel handbook through France, richly illustrated with more than a hundred engraved plates. The work is divided in 12 chapters, with the first few offering a general overview of various aspects of France, such as the government system and dress, and the others each focussing on a region, such as Normandy, Picardy, and Auvergne, with descriptions of the cities, castles and fortresses. The numerous engraved plates include folding views of Dijon, Nevers, Paris, and Rouen, as well as full-page views and plans of Amiens, Avignon, Bordeaux, Bourges, Caen, Calais, Cherbourg, Fontainebleau, Honnefleur, La Rochelle, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nîmes, Orange, Orléans, Rennes, St. Denis, Sancerre, Toulouse, Tours, etc.
The work was published anonymously, but is known to have been written by the Nuremberg scholar Johann Christoph Beer (1638-1712), who published and translated numerous regional descriptions, including works on Persia, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, Bohemia, Transylvania, and the Rhine and Elbe rivers. A second edition of the present work was published in 1690, also by Riegel, but the first edition is rarer.
With the bookplate of J. Wittmer from Strasbourg mounted on the front pastedown, and his stamp on the first free flyleaf, below an ownership entry from Anna Barbara Haussdörfer, Schreiberin, dated 1714. The pigskin has been rubbed, remains of catches on the front board, lacking the clasps. The leaves are lightly browned and occasionally mildly foxed, stains on the first few leaves from the catchplates. Otherwise in good condition. Holzmann VI, 2519; USTC 2545020 (4 copies); VD 17 39:130740H.