1795 Planches de l'Origine de tous les Cultes, ou Religion Universelle

Dupuis, Charles-François.Planches de l'Origine de tous les Cultes, ou Religion Universelle. Paris: H. Agasse, An III de la République [1795]. 4to (27 × 21 cm). 16 pp. of explanatory letterpress text + 22 engraved plates, including several folding plates. Contemporary full calf, covers ruled with decorative gilt borders, red morocco spine label, marbled endpapers.The complete separately issued atlas to one of the great monuments of the French Enlightenment. Published to accompany Dupuis' monumental Origine de tous les Cultes, the atlas illustrates the astronomical, mythological, and religious systems upon which the author based his celebrated (and highly controversial) theory that the world's ancient religions arose from a common astronomical tradition. The engraved plates encompass Egyptian deities and hieroglyphics, zodiacal and celestial diagrams, planetary systems, comparative religious iconography, talismanic figures, sacred symbols, cosmological schemes, and synoptic charts of ancient mythologies.A handsome contemporary binding. Leather lightly rubbed overall with scattered small wormholes to the front cover; corners lightly worn. Internally well preserved. Complete with all 22 engraved plates. An exceptional provenance copy, from the library of Nathalie Herzogin von Oldenburg (1854–1937), née Baroness Vogel von Friesenhof, artist, writer, and distinguished patron of the arts. Through her mother, Alexandrine Goncharova, she was a grandniece of Alexander Pushkin, and at Brodzany Castle (present-day Slovakia) she created an important literary and artistic salon while preserving one of the foremost Pushkin collections outside Russia. The volume bears her finely engraved armorial bookplate, print signed Brocyan and dated 1898, depicting the Duchess's library interior and country estate, together with an earlier armorial ownership stamp on the second endpaper.