Drival, Eugène van. Voyage des Bords du Rhin

Voyage dans l'Est de la France, en Allemagne, en Belgique et en Hollande, fait aux mois de Juillet et d'Août 1861 par L'abbé E. Van Drival Professeur au Grand Seminaire d'Arras. Récits - Etudes - Souvenirs - Notes diverses. Handwritten travelogue composed of 1 sm. journal w. notes on each of the 29 days of travel, presumably written during the voyage, and 2 larger journals, seemingly written shortly after the trip in a more narrative style. The smaller travel journal w. a few hand-drawn diagrams, mostly of churches; the 2 larger journals w. num. glued-in and tipped-in (col.) lithogr. views, maps, prayer cards, albumen photogr., tickets, printed descriptions of sites (taken from books) and other travel memories. Incl. descriptions of a.o. Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Cologne, Amsterdam and the Hague. Written in French a clear, legible hand. Sm. journal w. leather covers; larger ones unif. hcalf w. gilt title on spines.

Front cover of the sm. journal almost detached, outer spine of one of the larger vols. split along upper joint. A fascinating and engaging account of Van Drival's travels. Van Drival (1815-1887) was a French historian and philologist, author of numerous historical, archeological and linguistic texts as well as the director of the Grand séminaire d’Arras. (total 3)