Les Races Humaines
Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1873.
Illustrated by Illustrated. 2ième édition. Hardcover. Very Good- with no dust jacket. Item #16016
Random foxing not affecting legibility, endpapers stained by its glue, scraping to fore-edge affecting some text margins, edgewear, joint wear, otherwise light wear. Solid hardcover. ; French language. Full leather binding with five compartment spine containing gilt lettering and rulings, and all edges gilt. Illustrated with 288 wood engravings and eight chromoliths; "ouvrage illustré de 288 gravures dessinées sur bois et de 8 chromolithographies : représentant les principaux types des familles humaines." During the period of global colonialism, the French popular writer and scientist Louis Figuier outlines five races of man: white, yellow, black, brown and red, and describes manners, customs and usages of varied peoples around the world. He believed humanity arose in central asia, and the varied races emerged over time due to variations of climate, sun, food and manners, and the work reflects his era's popular view of ethnology and physical anthropology. This copy was part of the research library of John G. Spenzer, MD, with his custom bookplate featuring a skull with a wreath of laurels atop a book bearing the inscription “Literae mors immortalitas.” Spenzer was a savant and a pioneer forensics expert, trained in Europe, known as "Cleveland's Sherlock." Striking, well illustrated, popular ethnographic world tour, capturing the European culture's view, during the late nineteenth-century, of the varieties of the human race. ; 594 pages.
Price: $99.95