Grasset de Saint Sauveur (1796)
Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, Jacques (1757-1810). Encyclopédie des voyages [...]. Paris: Deroy: 1795-1796. 5vol.
Whether by accident or by design, the five-volume Encyclopédie des voyages published in Paris in 1795-1796 could just as well have been entitled Encyclopédie des costumes. In fairness to the author, Grasset de Saint-Sauveur did indicate his true intention in the long subtitle to his work, which indicates that his encyclopedia contains a brief history "of all the peoples" but "a complete collection of their civilian, military, religious and ceremonial dress, drawn from nature, engraved with care, and coloured with watercolours." In total, there are as many as 432 colour plates, all done by the author himself.
As an etcher, drawer and writer, Grasset de Saint-Sauveur was a prolific polygraph in keeping with the encyclopedic spirit of the eighteenth century: he wrote exotic novels as well as documentary works on various subjects. Called by one of his biographers "a drawer without genius but a good example of the taste of his time," Grasset de Saint-Sauveur was literally bewitched by costumes. In addition to his Encyclopédie des voyages, which focuses on "dress", he published among other things: Costumes civils actuels de tous les peuples connus (1788), Costumes des représentants du peuple (1795), Recueil complet des costumes des autorités constitutées civiles, militaires et de la marine (1796), L'Antique Rome, ou description ... de tout ce qui concerne le peuple romain, dans les costumes civils, militaires et religieux (1796), and Description des principaux peuples d'Asie, contenant le détail de leurs moeurs, costumes ... (1798). These publications were evidently embellished with aquatint engravings, most if not all of his own creation.
Born in Montreal in April 1757 - at the beginning of the Seven Years' War - Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur went to live in France after the conquest of New France by the British. He studied at Sainte-Barbe College in Paris and then embarked on a diplomatic career. After serving as French viceconsul in Hungary for several years, he was promoted to consul in Cairo. He died in Paris in May 1810.
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