Sonnerat: Voyage …

Pierre Sonnerat (1748–1814), the nephew of botanist Pierre Poivre, was a French explorer and naturalist. He traveled repeatedly to Southeast Asia (1769-1772), and to India and China (1774-1781). He was a French naturalist and explorer – and might be the first to give a scientific description of the lychee tree (which had been frequently mentioned in Western accounts of China following the illustration and description in M. Boym’s Flora Sinensis).

Pierre Sonnerat: Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine, fait par ordre du roi, depuis 1774 jusqu’en 1781. Dans lequel on traite des mœurs de la religion, des sciences & des arts des Indiens, des Chinois, des Pégouins & des Madégasses; suivi d’observations sur le cap de Bonne-Espérance, les isles de France & de Bourbon, les Maldives, Ceylan, Malacca, les Philippines & les Moluques, & de recherches sur l’histoire naturelle de ces pays. (Paris, L’auteur, 1782)

• Digitized:
  • vol. 1
    > Library of Congress ( Library of Congress Digital Collection | access  via World Digital Library)
    >  t.1 (provenance: Lausanne University)
  • vol. 2
    > Library of Congress ( Library of Congress Digital Collection  | access  via World Digital Library)
    > t. 2 (provenance: Lausanne University)
  • illustrations  (b/w) only:  gallica
• Bibliographic reference: BS 2102, Lust 353
• Entry in Wiener China-Bibliographie (with notes on two German editions)

A revised/enlarged edition by Charles Sigisbert Sonnini is also available online:
Pierre Sonnerat/Charles Sigisbert Sonnini: Voyage aux Indes Orientales et a la Chine: fait par ordre de Louis XVI, depuis 1774 jusqu’en 1781 … (Paris: Dentu 1806)

• Digitized:
  > t. 1: Google Books (provenance: New York Public Library)
  > t. 2: Google Books (provenance: New York Public Library)
  > t. 3: Google Books (provenance: New York Public Library)
  > t. 4: Google Books (provenance: New York Public Library)
• > t. 5 (planches): UB Heidelberg (URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-diglit-151702)

[Pierre Sonnerat:] Des Herrn Sonnerat Reise nach Ostindien, und China, in den Jahren 1774 bis 1781den Jahren 1774 bis 1781 nebst dessen Beobachtungen über Pegu, Madagascar, das Cap, die Inseln France und Bourbon …; Aus dem Französischen. (Leipzig: Sommer 1783)

• Digitized:
  > SLUB Dresden (PPN: 330730231; URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id3307302310)
  > access via VD 18-Digital
• Bibliographic reference: Löwendahl 638
• Entry in Wiener China-Bibliographie (referring an edition published in Zurich in 1783)