Rare geology book: Viollet-Le-Duc, Eugene Emmanuel; Mont Blanc. A Treastise on its Geodesical and Geological Constitution.

Viollet-Le-Duc, Eugene Emmanuel; Mont Blanc. A Treastise on its Geodesical and Geological Constitution; its Transformations; and the Ancient and Recent State of its Glaciers. Translated by Benjamin Bucknell. London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1877. Large octavo, pp. xvi, 378, 2 pages ads, 112 woodcuts.

The work is complete and in the original blue cloth with gilt spine titles, gilt cover vignette within black borders ad black cover titles. The binding is tight and clean with light smudge mark on spine. X-lib, Kummel Geology Lib. with stamp on verso of title page, book plate removed from paste down, stamp inked out on text block edges. Text is clean, in very good condition.

A French architect and writer on geology and archeology; Viollet-Le-Duc(1814-1879), was a pupil of the prominent architect Achille Leclere. Viollet-Le-Duc's chief interest was in the art of the Gothic period, and he was employed to " restore " some of the chief medieval buildings of France. His earliest works were the abbey church of Vzelay, various churches at Poissy, St Michel at Carcassonne, the church of Semur in Cote-d'Or, and the Gothic town halls of Saint-Antonin and Narbonne and the restoration of Notre Dame in Paris. In 1849 he began the restoration of the fortifications of Carcassonne and of Amiens cathedral; and in later years he restored Laon cathedral, the chateau of Pierrefonds, and many other important buildings. Viollet-Le-Duc was also a close friend of Napoleon III., and during the siege of Paris (1871) gave valuable help as an engineer to the beleaguered army. ?Viollet-Le-Duc was also an artist and studied the sciences and his uncanny perception of details also extended to his observations of mountains and glaciers. He was especially interested in the glacial features he saw in the Mont Blanc region. This led to his above scarce treatise on Mont Blanc which was originally published in French a year earlier and immediately translated to English. His artistic abilities are readily seen in the text figures and maps found within the book. The figures in his Le Massif du Mont Blanc, showing the rock contours and the glaciers of Mont Blanc reflect the artistic abilities and accuracy of the gifted architect and artist that he was.