Dive deeper into the origins: a lifelong career of two passionate travelers

Previous blogs about Voyage en Pologne, Russie, Suède, Dannemarc, &c.:

1 Brief Introduction: “Boats against the current”: Discovering Northern Europe and Asia

The French version of Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, volume three of five, has been printed and published in two companies, chez Buisson, Libraire in Paris and chez Barde, Manget & Comp. in Genève. There is no specific evidence of whether the translator, Paul-Henri Mallet, living in Genève at that time, has asked chez Barde, Manget & Comp. to print the books and chez Buisson, Libraire bought them from the latter, or the printing and publishing process was a collaborative work of two companies.

Figure 1. William Coxe, engraving by W. T. Fry, 1904

The author of the series, William Coxe (1747-1828), was born in London and received his secondary education at King’s College, Cambridge. After he became the preceptor of Lord Blandford, he accompanied the future eleventh earl of Pembroke on a European tour from 1775 to 1779. These travels formed the basis of his first version of three-volume Travels into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark (1784). He did not stop there and continued adding new content into the subsequent editions. Coxe dedicated his life to historical research. Among his existing work digitalized in HathiTrust Digital Library, there are over 40 travel chronicles of various regions and about 20 memoirs of individuals. According to his friends, Coxe was known for his genial character and a love for good food; thus I wonder whether he has included an account of food culture in the written journals.

Figure 2. Paul-Henri Mallet, Choisy: La famille Mallet, Aubert d’après Mlle Rath

The French translator, Paul-Henri Mallet (1730-1807), was born in Genève in 1730. Studied in l’académie de Genève, he became a professor of français à l’académie de Copenhague (1752-1760) and then the preceptor for the Denmark royal family (1755-1760). This French translated version, published in 1786, was one of his works on the topic of north Europe literature and history. Have a similar passion to Coxe, Mallet is also known for his excellent work on Danish culture, and have several oeuvres of Danish ancient literature and mythology.

As I have mentioned in the introductory blog, Voyage en Pologne, Russie, Suède, Dannemarc, &c. is one of the five volumes of traveling records for North Europe and Asia (particularly Russia). Although not a dedication to the royalty, the content of this book (and of the series it belongs to) should be scientifically accurate because of its author and translator’s educated background. On the first page of the book, it introduces that both William Coxe and P.H. Mallet were members of multiple academies in different places such as Cambridge, London, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Genève, and Paris. The fact that this book was translated into French and enriched with notes indicates that there was a demand for reading it in French-speaking countries. These introductions present the author and translator’s credentials, thus building the book’s credibility. The connections between them and the academies also suggest that these volumes’ production may be supported by these universities.

This book came to Colby College around the 20th century without records of a specific date or by what means it came. The stamp on the back of the title page, “Colby College Library”, suggests that this book became one part of the collection after Colby changed its name from “university” to “college” in 1899. The little pocket glued on the back page is for check-in and check-out books before the barcodes were applied to the library system. There is an illegible name on the first page, perhaps a signature, but I cannot find any information about its previous owner(s) besides this.