Apr 03, 2008 - Sale 2140

Sale 2140 - Lot 83

Price Realized: $ 18,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
SAGRA, RAMÓN DE LA. Historia Física, Política y Natural de la Isla de Cuba. 240 (of 269) engraved plates, including 124 hand-colored; 18 lithographed statistical charts; 13 lithographed maps, including 4 folding. Half-titles. 13 volumes. Folio, 392x260 mm, contemporary 1/4 calf gilt, spines faded, ends rubbed, some wear to cover corners, front hinge split in Volumes 7-8; some toning and foxing of text leaves, maps variously foxed and dampstained, approximately one third of the zoological plates heavily browned or foxed, scattered minor foxing on some of the botanical plates, clean tears in first map and in Foraminifera plate 10. Paris, 1838-61
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Primera Parte. Historia Física y Política: 1. Introducción, Geografía, Clima, Población, Agricultura. 18 lithographed charts of meteorological and vital statistics. 1838 [i. e., 1842] 2. Comercio Marítimo, Rentas y Gastos, Fuerza Armada, Apéndice [with Atlas Geográfico containing 13 lithographed maps]. 2 parts in one volume. 1842-42.
Segunda Parte. Historia Natural: 3. Mamíferos y Aves. 2 parts in one volume. 1838-39 4. Reptiles y Peces. 1843 5. Moluscos. 1845 6. Foraminiferas. 1840 7. Crustáceos, Aragnides é Insectos. 1856 8. Atlas de Zoología. 138 (of 147) engraved plates, including 122 hand-colored; lacks Mammalia plate 6, Aves plates 1, 4, 5, 10, 21, 24, 29, and Mollusca plate 30. 1855 9-12. Botánica. 102 (of 124) engraved plates, uncolored except for the first 2; lacks Cryptogamia plates 3-20 and Plantes Vasculaires plates 54 ter and 65. Cryptogamia plate 2 heavily browned. 1845-45-50-55.
13. Suplemento a la Sección Económico-Política. 1861.
first edition in spanish in book form, published concurrently with a French version. Unprecedented in scope and detail, La Sagra's monumental study of Cuba covered the ethnic composition of the population, slavery, government, politics, economy, agriculture, commerce, climate, geography, flora, fauna, and more. "Among the greatest rarities of Cuban bibliography . . . The Historia appeared in 190 installments, many of which were lost . . . It is impossible to estimate the number of complete collections that exist . . . but everything seems to indicate that they are very few" (Ripoll). Nissen ZBI 3547 (for Volumes 1-8), IVB (Volume 3), BBI 1713 (Volumes 9-12); Carlos Ripoll, "La Sagra's Historia," Revista Interamericana de Bibliografía XL:3 (1990), 421-27.