SCHNEPP, Bernard. Du climat de l’Égypte de sa valeur dans les affections de la poitrine, comme station hibernale, comparée à celles de Madère, d’Alger, de Palerme, de Naples, de Rome, de Venise, de Nice, d’Hyères, de Pau, etc.

First edition of this series of researches undertaken by dr. Schnepp in Egypt with the aim of studying a climate conducive to healing in comparison with known “winter resorts” such as Madera.

“Such a complete study of all the elements whose combined action constitutes the climate of Egypt, and the comparison which the author, with the help of carefully selected and discussed meteorological documents, establishes between this country and the various most vaunted hibernation resorts, the medical applications he draws from them provide insights into these different resorts that will be of great use not only to those whose health care calls for a change of climate, but also to doctors themselves, who are often at a loss when asked for advice on resorts with which they are unfamiliar. Such monographs are certainly bound to be of great service, but unfortunately they are rare”. (Gazette médicale de Paris, 1863, A. Haspel).

The copy contains 48 comparative charts, including 2 folding.

The work is dedicated to “A son Altesse impériale, Monseigneur, le prince Napoléon”.

Precious copy with imperial arms bearing on the half-title this autographic dedication to princess Mathilde Bonaparte: “A son altesse Impériale Madame la Princesse Mathilde. Tribute of respect and gratitude. B. Schnepp.

Daughter of Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia (Napoleon I’s last brother), and sister of Prince Napoleon, Mathilde Bonaparte (1820-1904) was initially proposed to by her cousin Louis-Napoleon, the future Napoleon III, but the proposal fell through. When Napoleon III began his career, she became associated with him and assisted him by taking on the role of mistress of the house; after the Emperor’s marriage, she lived outside the Tuileries and led a free life in Paris or Saint-Gratien, according to her tastes. Favoring Russia and Italian unity, she, like her brother, represented the left wing of the Empire. In fact, she played a different role, protecting writers of all political persuasions: Flaubert, Gautier, Sainte-Beuve, the Goncourts and Taine flocked to her salons. After September 4, 1870 and the fall of the Empire, she took refuge for a time in Belgium, but ended her long life in France. She had freed herself from worldly conventions and abandoned her religious convictions, but she remained ever attached to imperial glory, so much so that she was unable to accept Taine’s criticisms of Napoleon I.  She will go down in history as a patron of the arts, most often an enlightened one, who helped Pasteur, protected Gounod, encouraged Nadar, asked Carpeaux for a triumphal bust, and gathered eminent writers around her.