[DUMONT D’URVILLE] Admiral Charles Baudin : autograph letter signed, to Casimir Gide, dated February 1841

A letter relating to the publication of Dumont d’Urville’s account of his second voyage in the Astrolabe, one of the most important Pacific and Antarctic voyages of the nineteenth century.

Manuscript in ink, single sheet, quarto, headed Paris, 4 février 1841, a note from Admiral Charles Baudin, commander of the French fleet in Central and South America, to the publisher Casimir Gide, advising him that he has been recommended to the explorer Dumont d’Urville to be the publisher of his account of the Astrolabe‘s recently returned second voyage (1837-40); signed Charles Baudin; Baudin enclosed a letter he had received from Dumont d’Urville, which was evidently returned to him by Gide as requested; the verso with address and postal markings; original folds, paper toned and roughened along one edge, but complete and legible.

“J’ai l’honneur de vous adresser ci-incluse la lettre que j’ai reçu de l’amiral Dumont d’Urville, en réponse à celle par laquelle je l’avais prié de faire choix de vous pour éditeur de son dernier voyage. Je regrette de n’avoir pas eu de solution précise, mais puisque M. d’Urville s’en rapporte au ministre, je crois que toutes les chances sont pour vous. Je vous serais obligé de vouloir bien me renvoyer sa lettre”.

Casimir Gide was to heed Baudin’s recommendation: he published Dumont d’Urville’s account of the Astrolabe‘s expedition to the Antarctic in Voyage au Pôle Sud in 24 volumes between 1842 and 1854.