Travels through the Rhætian Alps,
in the year MDCCLXXXVI. From Italy to Germany, through Tyrol: by Albanis Beaumont... The work is ornamented with ten large aqua-tinta engravings, from original designs by the author...
London, for the Author, 1792
Beaumont's accounts of these journeys show a lively interest in the classical history of the area. He comments on benefits he has received from the works of other scientists active in the region, such as de Saussure, de Luc, and Pictet; he also remarks on the structural geology and mineralogy of the alpine regions and reports altitudes measured with his barometer. Published in large format, these accounts are embellished with maps drawn by himself (which he signed 'A. Beaumont, engineer') and by drawings in simple and sepia-washed versions.
In the early 1790s the duke of Gloucester took Beaumont to London, where he remained during the French Revolution. There he went into partnership with Thomas Gowland and employed Cornelius Apostool as engraver, publishing views of Switzerland, Mediterranean France, and Piedmont. He afterwards took to landscape painting, and in 1806 exhibited A Storm at Sea in which the waves were considered very realistic. Under the empire he retired to La Vernaz, in the Haute Savoie, where he reared sheep. In 1808 he was rewarded by the emperor for having acclimatized black merino sheep in that region. He died in 1812' (ODNB).
First edition, folio (57 x 39.5 cm), viii, 82, [ii] pp., engraved map, 10 fine aquatint plates after drawings by the author, uncut in contemporary calf-backed marbled boards.
Abbey (Travel), 49.
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