Francois Levaillant and the Birds of Africa

This copy in the dust jacket is in fine condition. 484 pages. Shipping weight of 3.5 kilograms.

The fifth volume in the Third Series of limited-edition Africana. One of 850 copies in the standard edition bound in cloth.

Intrepid traveller, pioneering naturalist, and famous author; Francois Levaillant (1753-1824) was a celebrity in his own lifetime . The colourful accounts of his travels in southern Africa in the 1780s were widely read in seven languages. His sumptuous bird books, published in a golden age of natural history book production, recorded for posterity his extensive bird collections. Yet he has often been dismissed as a flamboyant Gallic adventurer with a cavalier regard for the truth. This new study seeks to re-examine this controversial figure against the backdrop of the world of natural history and its practice in the late European Enlightenment. The potent mix of science and commerce is reflected in Levaillant's fascinated pursuit of knowledge of the animal kingdom and his active trade in specimens during the social and political upheavals of the early 18th century. (The Brenthurst Library)