£1,512
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs ft. the Library of the Late William St Clair Pt II | 712
Auction: 28 September 2022 at 11:00 BST
qui contiennent diverses remarques fort curieuses non encore observées touchant la Religion, Les Moeurs & la Politique de plusieurs Peuples. Avec une exacte description de l'Asie Mineure ou Natolie, des deux Armenies, du Courdistan, du Diarbek & autres Provinces Mediterranées de l'Asie, du Royaume de Perse. Paris: Louis Billaine, 1688. 2 volumes, 12mo, [xxxvii], 454; [xxxii], 624, [xxiv]; folding map, folding plan (of Constantinople) and 11 engraved plates (the plates in volume 2 trimmed to neatline before the work was bound, with no loss to images), contemporary speckled calf, spines gilt, bookplate of the Most Hon. John Marques of Tweeddale, half-title in volume 1, two single wormholes in lower margin of volume 2 affecting a few signatures, head and base of spines a little rubbed
Note:
Very rare. The work is not recorded in Atabey, Blackmer or Contominas and does not appear on ABPC as having been sold at auction in the last 35 years (except for 1 copy of the first 1667 edition at Sotheby's, 2010, lacking the 2 maps, for £1700 hammer). It describes a journey east by way of Ragusa, Bosna (presumably Sarajevo), Belgrade, Sofia, Mount Athos, Lemnos, Adrianople (Edirne) and finally Constantinople, commenting on the manners, customs and characteristics of particularly the Turks, but also the Greeks and Armenians. There are additional chapters on Turkish religion, government and warfare, ending with a history of Dutch and English commerce in the Levant.
A second volume appeared in the following year describing his journey further eastwards. Pinkerton, in his General Collection of... Voyages and Travels (1814), describes it as a "scarce work [which] contains a very good account for the time it was published".
The first edition, in one volume, was published in 1667.
Provenance:
From the library of the late William St Clair, FBA, FRSL.