77 1791 Civil engineering Suez Canal Lesseps F
- All vols. w. the same library stamp on title All but one vol. spine strengthened.
= With AUTOGRAPH SIGNED DEDICATION on htitle "Sixième Serie". PMM 339; Norman, 1336. "In 1832, while quarantined on his voyage to Alexandria to take up the post of vice-consul, de Lesseps passed the time by reading a copy of Lepère's report to Napoleon on the practicability of a canal connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. Having befriended Mohammed Said, the viceroy's son and later himself viceroy, during his time in Egypt, on his resignation from the consular service in 1854 de Lesseps obtained the concession for the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. Undeterred by the practical and political objections he set about seeking capital to finance the project; "In this treatise of nearly three hundred pages, with maps... he set out the whole case for the canal and his proposed method of building it. He secured the support of Napoleon III and raised a capital of two hundred million francs. Construction was begun in 1859 and completed ten years later" (PMM).
WITH: a small archive concerning the construction of the Suez Canal, dated between 1864 and 1867, consisting of i.a. lithographed copies of manuscript documents, two manuscript letters signed by F.P. VOISIN and a manuscript profile drawing of the canal from the "Côte Afrique" to the "Côte Asie", kept together in contemp. red hmor. album, folio.
- All but four documents mounted along left margin in album with some remnants of glue occas. visible.
= Comprising i.a. two manuscript letters SIGNED by F.P. VOISIN, the chief engineer for the Suez Canal Company, one regarding meetings in June and August 1864 and one addressed to Mr. Laroche, chief engineer in Port Said, ordering him to do all to prepare the Suez Canal as indicated by the scientific research done ((2)p., dated "7 Octobre 1864"); one large drawing in red and black pen and ink showing the canal's profile with height calculations ("Profil", 60x47 cm.); 18 lithogr. "Ordre de Service", numb. "1" to "18" by the Direction générale des Travaux from the Compagnie universelle de Canal maritime de Suez (signed in lithography by F. LESSEPS and F.P. VOISIN), each approx. 2-3 lvs., dated between 1863-1866 and 10 lithogr. "Instructions" in similar style.