Volney - Reflections On The Current War With The Turks. 1798. With A Text By Berthier.

VOLNEY (Constantin-François, Count of), BERTHIER (Major General) - Reflections on the Current War with the Turks. Followed by An Account of General Bonaparte’s Campaigns in Egypt and Syria. London and Paris, S.e. and Didot Ainé, Year IX (1801) and 1798; 8vo, 140 pp. plus a map and 185 pp., contemporary half-calf binding, plain spine with decoration, edges painted yellow.
Two works bound together in a single volume. Constantin-François Chasseboeuf de la Giraudais, Count of Volney, was a French philosopher and Orientalist and one of the founding fathers of ethnology, anthropology, and sociology. As a young man, he studied medicine, Oriental languages, history, and law. He met Franklin, d’Holbach, and Diderot, which reinforced his atheism. He learned Arabic and decided to travel to Syria and Egypt, publishing an account of his journey upon his return. He went to Brittany to promote his revolutionary ideas as early as the Estates-General in 1789. Elected to the Constituent Assembly, he traveled to Corsica and met Napoleon. He taught at the École Normale. Later, he traveled to the United States and became close friends with Napoleon even before Napoleon’s coup d’état, but he quickly fell out with him—even though Napoleon appointed him a senator nonetheless. He died in 1820. General Louis-Alexandre Berthier took part in all of Napoleon’s campaigns as a major general in the army. At Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena, he performed the important duties of chief of staff with the utmost zeal, and contributed significantly to the victory at Wagram in 1809. He represented Napoleon in Vienna at the wedding to Marie-Louise. During the Russian campaign, he tried to convince Napoleon not to press on toward Moscow. He then tendered his resignation and fell from favor. Finally, during the French Campaign, he was wounded in the head by a lance at the Battle of Brienne on January 29, 1814.