Voyage de Nicolas Klimius dans le monde souterrain, contenant une nouvelle teorie de la terre, et l'histoire d'une cinquieme monarchie inconnue jusqu'à present

Second edition (after the first Latin and French of 1741) with a frontispiece and seven engraved plates (including one folding, a map of the underground world) by Brühl. It's worth noting that numerous copies from this date don't have eight plates, while the first French edition had only three and the Latin none. Originally translated from the Latin Nicolai Klimii Iter subterraneum by Eléazar de Mauvillon (1712-1779). Attributed to Holberg by Barbier (Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes). Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques et occultes, Caillet, 1912-1913. Engraved title.
 
Contemporary brown sheep. Spine in decorated compartments. Beige title-piece. Headpieces shaved. Leather missing from edges of corners. Endpapers renewed in the 20 th century.
 
An allegorical and satirical work by the Danish writer and Professor of Law and Philosophy Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754). This utopian work is a fierce critique of the political and social institutions of the day, much like Swift's Gulliver's Travels. This is the first tale of the underground. Klimius, a poor student, falls down a hole and finds himself in the centre of the earth, where he discovers the planet Nazar and its inhabitants, who live according to the laws of nature and reason. It's worth nothing that Nicolas Klimius is the first fictional text based on the astronomical theories of Edmund Halley. The illustrations are very unusual and prefigure Grandville and his fantasies of the animal world.
Engraved armorial ex-libris of the Baron de Barenghien. Manuscript ex-libris "kabbalisticis Stanislaj de Guaita 1890".