Bibliography - Addenda and Corrigenda - AB58

AB58

LES CONVICTS | DE | BOTANY-BAY | PAR | CHARLES BARRINGTON. | [printer's ornament] | LIMOGES | BARBOUS FRÈRES, IMPRIMEURS-LIBRAIRES. | __ |

8vo. [i] half-title, [ii] blank, [1] blank, [2] front., [3] title, [4] blank, [5] + 6-189 text, [190] blank

This late nineteenth-century French republication of the original (1797-98) French translation of the 'Barrington' Voyage (see AB12) was acquired by the Mitchell Library in August 2008; no other copies are known. Published some 43 years later than the next latest (a different French translation - see AB57), it is astonishing to learn that 'Barrington' books were still being published in the latter part of the nineteenth century. While there is no date on the book itself, an entry in the official French national bibliographical catalogue, Journal Général de l'Imprimerie et de la Librairie, vol. 100 (1876), shows that this work was published more than eighty years after the first publication of the Barrington Voyage to New South Wales (and a quarter of a century after transportation to New South Wales itself had ceased). This work is attributed to 'Charles Barrington' – possibly used to suggest a spurious connection to the Canadian-born geologist and explorer Charles Barrington Brown (1839-1917), whose Canoe and Camp Life in British Guinea was published in London in 1876 – although since 'Charles Barrington' is referred to as "l'un des criminels les plus fameux de l'Angleterre" (p. 6) it might simply have been an error. An intriguing frontispiece illustration, which depicts a lion mauling a most unfortunate inhabitant of 'Botany Bay,' suggests a certain conceptual looseness in the packaging of the work.

The text here is the same as the original French version of the Barrington Voyage – Voyage a Botany-Bay (AB12), apart from a brief new 'avant-propos' (foreword) which occupies pp. [5]–7. The binding is stamped with the work's title, the publishers imprint, and also the series name: "Bibliotheque Morale et Litteraire."

The publishers of the work were members of a family who had been involved in the book trade since the early sixteenth century. According to a late nineteenth-century promotional pamphlet, the first member of the family to enter the trade was Jean Barbou (b. Saussey, 1489), and the Barbou brothers operating at Limoges in the late nineteenth century claimed a continuous line to the business of Jean's son, Hugues Barbou (b. Lyon, 1538). The 'Barbou Frères' imprint seems to have been used since 1840, when brothers Henri and Charles Barbou inherited the business from their father Prosper Barbou des Courières. After the death of Henri Barbou in 1870, his sons Hugues-Herbert and Marc-Alexis joined their uncle Charles in partnership, before the latter left to form his own company in 1879. The imprint 'Barbou Frères' was abandoned after the death of Hugues-Herbert in 1880, when Marc-Alexis Barbou took on an associate, Charles Duboys, and styled the business 'Marc Barbou et Cie' (see A. Dubois, Notice sur la Maison Marc Barbou & Cie (1568–1887) (Limoges: Marc Barbou & Cie, n.d.).

The Barbou Frères specialised in educational works aimed at young readers. Their "Bibliothèque Morale et Litteraire" series, which was continued in the 1880s by Marc Barbou & Cie, seems to have replaced their earlier "Bibliothèque Chrétienne et Morale," which included more strictly religious works, and their "Bibliothèque Historique et Morale." The inclusion of the Barrington Voyage in the "Bibliothèque Morale et Litteraire" continues a tradition of continental European publishers marketing translations of 'Barrinton' as moral works suitable for the instruction of younger readers (see AB38, AB51, AB52, AB53, AB54, AB55, AB57): an idea that would have seemed quite foreign to the original English publishers and readers of the work.

The frontispiece illustration is a wood etching, the artist's name, in the lower left corner, appears to be "SEGUIN." Above the illustration is the title: "LES CONVICTS DE BOTANY-BAY"; a caption below reads: "Je vis un lion s’élancer avec la rapidité de l’èclair."The printer's ornament on the title page is a family crest, with the motto: "Meta Laboris Honor." A colophon at the foot of the last page of text (p. 189) reads: "Limoges. –– Imprimerie de Barbou Frères."

DOP: 1876

References: Journal Général de l'Imprimerie et de la Librairie, vol. 100 (1876)

Copies: ML