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BELGRAND, Eugène (1810-1878) : Histoire générale de Paris. La Seine. I. Le bassin parisien aux âges antéhistoriques

Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1869.

3 volumes, small folio, 34x24,5cm. Vol. 1 (text): pp. [4],cvi,[2],288,[2], 4 double-page maps, 5 collotype photogr. plates, 42 wood-engr. maps and sections in text, detailed index; vol. 2 (atlas)): pp. 56,[4], 87 photogr. plates in photo-litho ("heliotype"), mostly showing remains of mammals (some of human remains and artefacts); vol. 3: slipcase cont. 3 large fold. chromolithogr. plates of sections and a malacological supplement "Catalogue des mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles des environs de Paris à l'époque quaternaire" by R. Bourguignat (pp. ii,32, 54 figs. on 3 lithogr. plates. Orig. printed boards (text volume & slipcase) and orig. gilt-lettered and blind-stamped cloth (atlas). Bindings of boards volumes a bit rubbed, wear to spine ends of text volume, cloth binding very good, a bit of light local foxing - A near fine complete set of the rare first edition of this monumental monograph. A second edition appeared in 1883 with only 45 plates. The wealth of paleontological, prehistorical and archeological finds and their interpretation were the result of the execution of "one of the most extensive urban sewer systems in the world". The engineer Belgrand was appointed as Director of Water and Sewers of Paris in 1855, under his direction the sewer system of Paris was rigorously modernized and expanded fourfold between 1855 and 1869.

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