Voyage à Saint-Pétersbourg, en 1799-1800, Fait avec l'ambassade des Chevalliers de l'ordre de St.-Jean de Jérusalem, allant offrir à l'Empereur Paul premier la grande Maîtrise de l'Ordre; Dans lequel on trouve: Des notes curieuses sur l'empereur Paul premier, le général Souwarow, les comtes Rostopchin, Pannis, Pahlen, Koutaisow, ... des particularités remarquables sur les Gouvernement russe, l'état du commerce ... Précédé d'un itinéraire statistique et historique de Fribourg ... a St. Petersbourg, en passant par Vienne... Cracovie, Brzesk, Riga, Mittau ... Berlin, Dresde.. pour servir à l'histoire des Événements de la fin du 18e siècle. by GEORGEL, Jean François

Paris, Eymery and Delaunay, 1818. 8vo. Contemporary calf-backed drab boards, spine with raised bands, ornamented and lettered in gilt; pp. 487; hinges at tail of spine repaired; extremities with wear, but stable; internally, apart from occasional light browning, good. Scarce first edition of this travelogue covering the journey of a group of Knights Hospitallers from the south western corner of Germany to Saint Petersburg in order to bestow upon the Tsar a high decoration of the Maltese order. After Napoleon had taken over Malta in 1798, many Knights had found shelter in Russia. The Jesuit-educated Abbé Georgel had been French Ambassador to Vienna in 1774, and as a 70-year old former mover and shaker of the ancien régime he undertook an impressive overland journey through a good chunk of Europe, thereby recording the political, mitilitary and economic state of the Continent from May 1799 to the end of 1800, with a four-month sojourn at the Russian court. The entire narrative is full of reflections on Napoleon's impact on the societies and states of Europe, and the uncertain impact of the career of the most powerful man in Europe and his adversaries.