François Péron

The Atlas of François Péron’s Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Lands completes the new translation of the official account of the French expedition of 1800–04 led by Post Captain Nicolas Baudin. The so-called Atlas contains the collected art work of the expedition — plates and some charts and plans. It is an expanded version of the first Atlas (1816) which contained some 40 plates. Many of the 68 plates of the current edition contain multiple illustrations.

Sarah Thomas, formerly a curator at the Art Gallery of South Australia and a specialist in this area, has written the introduction to the new publication. She highlights the work of the artists, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit, and the Parisian engravers and printers who prepared their illustrations for publication.

The voyagers stopped for varying periods at Mauritius, Cape Town, New Holland, Van Diemen’s Land, New South Wales and Timor. The flora, fauna, local inhabitants and settlements in each of these locations were meticulously recorded by the expedition’s artists, perfectly supplementing the detailed accounts written by zoologist François Péron.

The Atlas is both a beautiful work of art and a unique historical record of the ‘southern lands’ at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Limited edition of 400 copies, measuring 350 x 255mm.

The first 150 copies are numbered and hand bound in half leather with raised bands and cloth boards.

The remaining copies are bound in blind-stamped cloth boards.

Deluxe edition:  SOLD OUT    Standard edition: RRP $175


Members Price Standard edition: $160