LE PARISÉUM: ou Tableau de Paris, en l’an XII (1804). Ouvrage indispensable pour connaître et visiter en peu de tems ce qu’il y a de curieux; Antiquités, Edifices, Musées, Cabinets, Manufactures, Spectacles, avec les noms et les adresses des artistes et des lit

8vo, pp. xxxvi, 1-48, [2], 53-317, [1] blank; with folding frontispiece 'panorama des curiosités'; short marginal note in ink on p. 168, staining to margins of a few gatherings, and occasional spotting, but largely clean and crisp; uncut in contemporary stiff interim wrappers, covered in brown and blue marbled paper, later handwritten paper label on spine; light rubbing and marking, but a lovely copy.

A good copy of this rare guide to Paris in 1804, designed 'for the foreigner who would like to know our capital and instruct himself on the topography, history, government, religion, literature, arts, and customs of Paris, that is, of France, of which this city is the centre and the motive force'.

Opening with a section of instructions for the foreigner arriving in Paris, explaining where to stay, where and how to eat, how to send a letter, the various types of vehicles for getting around, and the importance, for someone who wants to learn the language properly, of going to the theatre. Then, after a brief historical sketch of the origins and development of the city, the work is divided into six sections: government (including the courts and prisons); religion (including education and customs); letters (including the arts and sciences); industry (including agriculture and commerce); buildings (including monuments and public spaces); and spectacles (which encompasses every sort of entertainment and leisure). To this reader, it is especially interesting to find descriptions of the various Parisian libraries, starting with the Bibliothèque nationale (open to littérateurs every day except Sunday, between 10am and 2pm and to the curious on Wednesdays and Thursdays), but also noting the Pantheon library, the Mazarine (with its 'superbe globe terrestre, nouvellement fait'), and the bibliothèque de l'Arsenal.

Blanvillan also sketches the principal journals (both literary and scientific) published in Paris, often with their subscription prices; the printers and booksellers of the city; the manufacture of everything from Sèvres porcelain to steam pumps, artificial pearls, and perfume. The reader is told the exchange rates for both currencies and weights and measures throughout Europe, and the names of the singers and dancers of the Paris Opera, the Opera comique, and elsewhere, along with ticket prices. And, although there is no map of the city included, the frontispiece is a folding 'panorama des curiosités', showing the principal sights in relation to, on one axis, the Seine, and on the other, the rue S. Martin/rue S. Jacques.

A second edition of Le Pariséum appeared in 1807. One of the updates over the present edition was a regrettable fixing of the pagination, which in this copy runs 48, 49 et 50, 51 et 52, 53 (for B8v, C1r, C1v, C2r); a bodge we have never seen elsewhere.

OCLC records no copies outside Continental Europe; LibraryHub adds a copy at the British Library.