SCHEFFER, Johannes Gerhard. Histoire de la Laponie, sa description, l'origine, les mœurs, la manière de vivre de ses habitans, leur religion, leur magie, & les choses rares du païs. Avec plusieurs Additions & Augmentations fort curieuses, qui jusques-icy n'ont pas esté |! Imprimées.
Paris, Chez la Veuve Olivier de Varennes, 1678
4to. 242x180 mm. Full blond leather binding, ribbed spine with gilt title on a red morocco label and gilt decorations, dentelles. Engraved Frontispiece, 14 pages, including title page, 408. 7 engravings in the text, a folded map and 21 engraved plates outside the text. Stamp on the first page “Biblioteque De Monr Le Baron de Damas”. Minor defects to the binding, some sporadic and poor internal browning, good copy.
Rare first French edition, enlarged. This highly important work by Johannes Schefferus, professor of eloquence and government at Uppsala University and one of the most important Swedish humanists of the time, originally appeared in Latin in 1673 and was soon translated into French, English, German, and Dutch. It is one of the earliest works on the Sami and is considered a fundamental source of information on Sami religion and beliefs; it presents the ancestral culture of the Lapps, their magical secrets, and their hunting methods.
The copperplate illustration includes a frontispiece with seven figures within the text, a folded map, and 21 plates outside the text: five of these plates depict the "drum," a magical instrument the Lapps used to learn what was happening in other countries or whether their enterprises would be successful, to learn the cause of illnesses and how to cure them, and to practice witchcraft.
This French translation is by Augustine Lubin, and the preface states that the additions beginning on p. 358 were provided by Scheffer himself and are not included in any other edition.
The present French translation is by Augustine Lubin and in the preface it is stated that the additions which begin at p.358 were provided by Scheffer himself and are not included in any other edition. 
A copy of prestigious provenance. The volume belonged to Baron Ange Hyacinthe Maxence de Damas de Cormaillon (1785–1862), Minister of War in 1823, and in 1824 the king asked him to replace François-René de Chateaubriand as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Brunet V, 194; Chadenat, n°1484; Dorbon, n. 4421.