RECLUS (Elisée) - Nouvelle géographie universelle: La Terre - Lot 600

RECLUS (Elisée) - Nouvelle géographie universelle: La Terre et les hommes, tome IV l'Europe du Nord-Ouest (Belgique, Hollande, Îles Britanniques). Paris, Hachette et Cie, 1887; in-4, 970 pp, publisher's binding by Magnier after a plate by Souze, red half calf, smooth compass spine, printed boards decorated with a globe in a compass, gilt edges. Binding called by enthusiasts "reliure aux compas" and more often "reliure maçonnique". Élisée Reclus, whose full name was Jacques Élisée Reclus, was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande (Gironde) on March 15, 1830 and died in Thourout, Belgium, on July 4, 1905. A Communard, anarchist militant and theorist, he was a prolific teacher and writer. A member of the First International, he joined the Jura Federation after Michel Bakunin's exclusion. With Pierre Kropotkin and Jean Grave, he contributed to the journal Le Révolté. In 1892, he was invited by the Free University of Brussels, which offered him a chair in comparative geography at the Faculty of Science. However, before the course had even begun, it was suspended at the end of 1893, following the assassination attempt of Auguste Vaillant in Paris. He then gave his first classes on the premises of the Masonic lodge Les Amis philanthropes. In October 1894, with other professors who had resigned, he founded the Université Nouvelle in Brussels. A citizen of the world before his time, a precursor of social geography, geopolitics, geohistory and ecology, his major works include La Terre in 2 volumes, his Géographie universelle in 19 volumes, L'Homme et la Terre in 6 volumes, as well as Histoire d'un ruisseau and Histoire d'une montagne. But this thinker who lived from his pen also published some 200 geographical articles, 40 articles on various themes, and 80 political articles in anarchist periodicals. A few minor defects, some corners dulled, but fine condition. 6 color maps printed separately, 205 maps in the text and 81 woodcut views and types. Expert : M. Philippe HENRY