GUETTARD, Jean Etienne. Description générale et particulière de la France, département du Rhône, ouvrage enrichi d'estampes d'après les dessins des plus célèbres artistes. L'histoire du Dauphiné & la description de cette Province, par M. Béguillet. Suivi de: 2° La minéralogie du Dauphiné, par M. Guettard. Paris, P. Pierres, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roi, 1782-1784.

Folio 512 x 333 mm; full contemporary calf with gilt lines, gilt dentelles, gilt lettered and ornamented spine. Marbled flyleaves. All sides yellow. Pp. 255, 20 fine engraved plates on 10 leaves, all on minerals and fossils, drawn by De Fecamp and engraved by J. Robert; and a nice woodcut vignette. Armorial bookplate of Edward Henry Scott 5th Baronet of Lytchet Minster on the front pastedown. Spine rebacked; a very inoffensive damp stain on the edges of the top part of the plates and some light brown spots on the title.

The work consists of four parts, preceded by a 24 pp. general introduction. The first part (102 pp.) "Abrégé de l'Histoire du Dauphiné et des Princes Dauphins" with a nice engraved text-vignette showing the "Price des possessions du Dauphiné en 1349" deals with the history of the area; the second and by far largest part (255 pp., 20 plates; by Guettard) deals with the minéralogie. This includes geology and palaeontology, with the plates showing minerals and fossils. "In the well-known controversy over the nature of columnar basalt, Guettard at first supported the view that these formations were not volcanic in origin. However, after visits to Italy in 1771 and 1772 and the vicinity of Montpellier in 1771, he began to have doubts and these doubts were confirmed when in 1775 he explored the neighbourhood of Montélimar in Dauphiné. His change of opinion about the origin of columnar basalt was announced in his 'Mémoires sur la minéralogie du Dauphiné' (1779)". The index shows this copy to be complete. Of the mineralogical work, Ward and Carozzi (p. 240) quotes the first edition of 1779 with 19 partly coloured plates. This second edition has 20 plates. (1842-1883). Brunet, 1795 [4718] (1st ed.); Ward and Carrozi, 977.