[COLETTE] BARDIN (Libre-Irmond). Study of the Topography. 1° Maps: Study of the forms of the Terrain. 2° Historical part ; - Reading of the Maps. 3° Photographic reproductions of reliefs. S.l., [1856]. - 53 maps and plates in-4 and in-folio, in sheets in brown cloth-backed cardboard folder and laces, large piece of handwritten paper glued on the first cover. Precious and rare set of maps and plates from the rare work of Libre-Irmond Bardin (1794-1867) La Topographie enseignée par des plans-reliefs et des dessins published in 1856, not found today on the market. Bardin entered the École Polytechnique in 1813 and became a lieutenant of artillery in 1817. He resigned in 1820, but soon returned to Polytechnique as a professor of drawing and fortification. He became director of the École centrale des arts et manufactures in 1839 and defended the interests of the Metz region in the development of railroads. This collection is all the more precious here as it was given in 1889 by Madame and Mademoiselle Bardin to Jules-Joseph Colette, known as "Captain Colette" (1829-1905), who was none other than the father of the famous novelist. On the first cover of the folder is a large paper escutcheon on which it is detailed its contents surmounted by this mention: "Offered to Mr. Captain Colette by Madame & Mademoiselle L. Bardin (1889)." The set includes three sets of maps and plates, each in a folder with a handwritten table. The first set includes 27 maps and plates devoted to the study of landforms on maps. Eighteen of them are about the surroundings of Metz, one represents the department of Moselle and eight the island of Porquerolle. The maps numbered 18-19 form a single map. The second series, devoted to the historical part and the reading of the maps, includes 12 maps, most of them old in reproduction (Manche, Metz and its surroundings, Greece, Turkey, surroundings of Oran, Bône, Paris, Constantine, etc.), plus two maps in supplement for a leveling study and the surroundings of Coblentz. Missing from this series is the map numbered 40 with the caption: "Topographical fragments, volcanic countries. Pays d'Auvergne et Monts Albins au 80 000e". The last series includes 12 very rare photographic reproductions of relief plans of the Auvergne Puys chain, the Dauphinois Alps, the Mont-Blanc and Mont-Cenis massifs, and the Hyères harbor. On the folder it is written that a first lot was offered by Mesdames Bardin on July 3, 1889 and that a second was given on August 8 of the same year. According to the table, a map of Auvergne at 80 000e is missing. Some foxing and a few small tears not serious. Provenance: Jules-Joseph Colette.