Paris, Jean-Luc Nyon, 1722. 12mo (15.4 x 9.1 cm). Engraved title " Nouveau Voiage de Madagascard", letterpress title, [xviii], 304 pp.; six engraved plates; large, multi-folding map. Contemporary full mottled calf. Spine rich gilt, with five gilt-rolled raised bands; compartments with gilt floral borders and crowned shield with a lion; boards with triple gilt borders and large gilt vignettes, showing a Celtic warrior waving a banner, "Brithan" and captioned "Foy de Brehan". Gilt-lined board edges and inner dentelles. Marbled endpapers. Edges red.

Extremely rare copy, with its frontispiece, map and six plates (which are nearly always lacking), of an anonymous work, edited by Carpeau du Saussay (1647-1722) and often, probably correctly, attributed to him. Racault stated "En l’absence de toute autre indication sur l’identité de l’auteur, on peut conserver l’attribution ancienne à Carpeau du Saussay, signataire de la lettre dédicatoire au Prince de Conti". The monsieur De V... in the title seems to be an imaginary Dutch painter travelling to the East Indies. The fine plates show animals and indigenous people. Provenance: the gilt vignettes of a Celtic warrior, as described above, indicate the library of the French diplomat and army colonel Louis Robert Hippolyte de Bréhan, comte de Plélo (1699-1734), who was killed in battle near Danzig (Gdansk) during the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1738). Old, armorial stamp, Bibliotheque Eugène de Froberville, on the letterpress title. De Froberville (1790-1871) was a French historian and ethnographer. Mild wear to the hinges, the upper hinges starting. We found only five auction records, four of which of incomplete copies, with printed text only. Grandidier, Bibliographie de Madagascar, 796; Racault, J. M. (2021) Les voyageurs du XVIIe siècle devant les croyances malgaches, le cas de Souchu de Rennefort ou du témoignage documentaire à la quête métaphysique, p. 193.