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Schubert, Gotthilf Heinrich von.
Bilder aus dem Heiligen Lande. Vierzig ausgewaehlte Original-Ansichten biblisch-wichtiger Orte treu nach der Natur gezeichnet von J. M. Bernatz. Stuttgart, J. F. Steinkopf, 1839.
Oblong folio. (2), 40 ff., title with lithographic vignette, with 40 lithographic plates on India (three composing a large panorama of Sinai, this not on India), tissue guards present. Contemporary German half calf over sprinkled boards, spine ornamented and lettered in gilt. Schubert (1780-1860), originally a theologian, then medical practitioner, was an exponent of Schelling's school of "Naturphilosophie". His text accompanies the illustrations after the landscape painter Johann Martin Bernatz. In 1836 he had accompanied Schubert and another scholar, Michael Pius Erdl, to Constantinople and the Holy Land, the result of which is this finely lithographed work. - Very light spotting in places only, some foxing and browning to title, panorama and one further plate; extremities a little worn. Cf. Tobler 228 and Engelmann 385 (1837 first edition).
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Strabo.
[Geographia.] Rerum geographicarum libri XVII. Paris, typis Regiis, 1620.
Folio. 2 parts in one volume. (12), 843, (112) pp. (4), 282, (8) pp. Title printed in red and black with engraved vignette showing arms of Louis XIII. Double-column text in Greek and Latin. Finely engraved head- and tail-pieces and large inhabited initials throughout. Contemporary English vellum gilt, panelled sides with two double-rule borders enclosing a four-part fan motif centrepiece and surrounded by fan motif cornerpieces, flat spine gilt with foliate motifs and small tools. Enlarged and corrected second edition ("much more accurate and splendid than the first", says Dibdin) of Strabo’s "Geography", one of the earliest and most important scientific treatises of historical geography. Contains the Greek text beside Xylander's Latin translation, with commentaries by Frédéric Morel and Isaac Casaubon. Together with the works of Ptolemy and Solinus, Strabo's "Geography" constitutes the first attempt at a unified treatise of geographical knowledge. Strabo had visited Egypt and sailed up the Nile in 25 BC. Even in the introductory chapters, the author provides important details on the Arabian Peninsula: "Adjoining the Ethiopians, a needy and nomad race, is Arabia: one part of which is distinguished above all other lands by the title of Felix [i.e., Hedjaz and Nejd-ed-Ared], and the other, though not dignified by that name, is both generally believed and also said to be pre-eminently blessed. Though Homer knew of Arabia Felix, at that time it was by no means wealthy, but a wild country, the inhabitants of which dwelt for the most part in tents. It is only a small district which produces the aromatics from which the whole territory afterwards received its name, owing to the rarity of the commodity amongst us, and the value set upon it. That the Arabians are now flourishing and wealthy is due to their vast and extended trade" (bk. 1, p. 39); "Arabia Felix is bounded by the entire Arabian and Persian Gulfs, together with all the country of the tent-dwellers and the Sheikh-governed tribes. [...] Beside the ocean the country is tolerably fitted for habitation of man, but not so the centre of the country: this for the most part is barren, rugged sand desert. The same applies to the country of the Troglodytic Arabians and the part occupied by the fish-eating tribes" (bk. 2, p. 130f.) Furthermore, books 15 and 16 are devoted entirely to the Orient (bk. 16 is on Arabia in particular), while the final book 17 discusses Egypt and Libya. - With 19th c. bookplate of Richard Newcome, and later label of Viscount Mersey, Bignor Park, on the front free endpaper. Short marginal tear and a crease to the titlepage, single minute wormhole in the inner margin through the first half of the text block; a very good copy. Brunet V, 554. Graesse VII, 604. Schweiger I, 303. Hoffmann III, 454. Dibdin II, 433. Moss II, 620f. Ebert 21809.
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[Type specimens].
Regi Gustavo regis federici filio Suecis Gothis Vandalis Imperanti praesides et alumni Collegii Christiano nomini propagando quod linguarum experimenta publicantibus indulgentissime adfuerit interumque ad officinae librariae cognitionem lyceo successerit honoris ergo litterarium formarum omnigenarum specimen laeti libentes dedicant [...]. [Rome], (typis Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, March 1784).
Small folio (252 x 336 mm). (1), 23, (1) ff. (lacking first blank). With engraved medallion headpiece to first leaf. Modern marbled boards with giltstamped green title label to upper cover. Only edition. - A set of congratulatory poems in forty-six languages to honour the visit of Gustaf III of Sweden to Rome. This multilingual album of type specimens is a remarkable showcase for the typographical versatility of the Propaganda Press in the later 18th century, shortly before the printing-house was "despoiled unmercifully" (Updike I, 183) in 1798 by the French Directory. Includes versions in Arabic, Armenian, Chaldaic, Chinese, Croatian, Classical and Modern Greek, Hebrew, Malabar, Persian, Serbian, Syrian, Tibetan, and Turkish. - Some browning and foxing throughout; a few edge flaws (with occasional loss of corner) repaired. A wide-margined copy. Rare; OCLC lists eight copies worldwide (six in U.S. research libraries). OCLC 20273705.
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(Victorius, Marianus / Venerio, Achille [ed.]).
[Zentu mashafa temhert zalesam Ge`ez zayessammay Kalédawi haddisa serat tagabra kama yetmahharu ella iya ammeru sannay weetu tagabra]. Chaldeae, seu Aethiopicae linguae institutiones. Opus utile, ec eruditum. Rome, Typis Sac. Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1630.
8vo. (8), 86 pp., final blank f. Contemporary vellum. Second edition of Victorius's introduction to the Ethiopian language, first published in 1552. This is the first printing with the newly designed and cut Ethiopic types; an "Alphabetum" appeared one year later. In his preface, Venerius relates how the types were cut after designd received from Jesuit missionaries in Ethiopia. One set of types was sent to them, one was kept for the Propaganda Press. - Front inner hinge broken; title loosened. Some browning throughout. Ms. ownership of Joseph Venturi in Hebrew and Latin on title page, with his note "rara" and date of acquisition "3 Oct. 1785" on pastedown opposite. Smitskamp, PO 218. Vater/Jülg 7. Fumagalli 1173. Leslau 610. De Gubernatis 173. Silvestre de Sacy 2874. OCLC 50572132.
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Zanolini, Antonio.
[Ausra de-lesana surjaja]. Lexicon Syriacum. Padua, Typis Seminarii, 1742.
4to. (10), XVIII, 294 pp. Contemporary unsophisticated wrappers. Uncommon dictionary of Syriac compiled by Antonio Zanolini, professor of oriental languages at the seminary of Padua seminary. - Spine browned; slight waterstain to upper cover, not affecting interior. A wide-margined, untrimmed copy with several Greek, Hebrew and Syriac notes in a contemporary scholar's hand laid in. Vater/Jülg 387. Zaunmüller 372. OCLC 3667168.
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[Arabian Peninsula]. - Craufurd, C[harles Edward Vereker].
The Dhofar District. (From: The Geographical Journal. Vol. LXIII No. 2 [February 1919]). London, The Royal Geographical Society, 1919.
8vo. pp. 97-105. With 2 photoplates. Modern wrappers. Early account of a visit to the seaport of Dhofar (Oman) on the southern coast of the Peninsula, including an interesting account of the local boats and the sailing skills of their owners. The illustrations show Makalla in Hadramaut, a camel drawing water in Dhofar, and the ruins of the temple of al-Bilad. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 777. OCLC 49427292.
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Bahya ibn Yosef ibn Paquda / Yahuda, A[braham] S[halom] (ed.).
Al-Hidaja ´ila Fara´id al-Qulub. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1912.
Large 8vo. XVII, (3), 113, (3), 407, (1) pp. With 3 lithogr. plates. Contemporary red cloth with giltstamped spine title; original blue wrappers bound within. First modern edition of the original Arabic text of "Al Hidayah ila Faraid al-Qulub" ("Guide to the Duties of the Heart"), written in 1080 by the Jewish philosopher Bahya ibn Paquda, who lived at Zaragoza, in Muslim Spain. The work offers the first Jewish system of ethics and was translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon in 1161-80 ("Chovot ha-Levavot"). It is based on numerous non-Jewish sources, including writings of Islamic mysticism and Arabic neo-Platonism. Yahuda's edition uses mss. in the libraries of Oxford, Paris, and St Petersburg. - In excellent condition. Herlitz IV/2, 1521. OCLC 3117215.
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Carlyle, J[oseph] D[acre].
Specimens of Arabian Poetry, From the Earliest Time to the Extinction of the Kaliphat, With Some Account of the Authors. The Second Edition. London, W. Bulmer for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1810.
Large 8vo. XVI, 143, (1), 70 pp. With 1 engr. plate of music. Contemp. full calf with giltstamped cover borders, attractively gilt spine and green gilt spine label. Second, posthumous edition, first published in Cambridge in 1796. Poets include Lebid ben Rabiat Alamary, Hassan Alasady, Abd Almalec Alharithy, Abu Saher Alhedily, Hatem Tai, Jaafer ben Alba, Alfadhel ibn Alabas, Meskin Aldaramy, Nabegat Beni Jaid, Imam Shafay Mohammed ben Idris, Ibrahim ben Adham, Isaac Almousely, Abu Mohammed, Abd Alsalam ben Ragban, Ibn Alalaf Alnaharwany, etc. The Arabic text follows the English translation (with separate page count). J. D. Carlyle (1759-1804) was professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge. He was appointed chaplain by Lord Elgin to the embassy at Constantinople in 1799, and pursued his researches in Eastern literature in a tour through Asia Minor, Palestine, Greece and Italy, collecting in his travels several valuable Greek and Syriac manuscripts. - Occasional browning to text; covers sunned in places. A handsome copy from the library of John Pulteney with his engr. armorial bookplate to front pastedown. BMC 4:1258.1197. Gay 3436. Graesse II, 49. OCLC 2770074.
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Ibn Sidah, Abu l-Hasan `Ali.
Kitab al-Mukhassas. Bulaq, Al-Matba al-Kubra al-Amiriya, 1898-1903.
4to. 17 parts in 5 vols. Contemp. half calf. Principal work of Ibn Sîdah (1007-1066), the great blind Andalusian lexicographer: the most important Arabic encyclopedia and dictionary. Lemmas are arranged in groups based on different classes of words. Two manuscripts are preserved: one in Cairo (dated 1202) and one in the Escorial. - Occasional edge wear; some browning and brownstaining. A good copy. GAL I, p. 308. EI II, 445. OCLC 20111625.
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Ludolfo, Jobo.
Sciagraphia historiae Aethiopicae, sive regni Abessinorum, quod vulgo perperam Presbyteri Johannis vocatur, deo volente, aliquando in lucvem proditurae. Jenae, ex Officina Orientali Samuelis Krebsii, 1676.
Title page and 38 unnumbered pages of text. Half cloth binding from around 1870 with gilt spine-lettering and marbled boards. This is a preliminary outline of the material to be covered extensively in Ludolf's "Istoria Aethiopica", which was published in three volumes from 1681 to 1693. Job Ludolf, a German German scholar, and the "founder of Ethiopian studies" (Katalog der Eutiner Landesbibliothek) gathered the most important information available about Ethiopia in his time, working for a time in collaboration with one of the Ethiopian monks who stayed in Rome. In addition to his monumental history of the country, he wrote dictionaries and grammars of Ge'ez and Amharic. His intensive studies of Ethiopian culture and life made his work the best 17thcentury source on the region described. "A most important work on Abyssinia" (cf. Paulitschke), "of an importance transcending his own time". Very good condition outside, text shows browning and foxing. Stamp on reverse of title page. A particularly scarce and hardly known work, preceding Ludolf's famous publication on Ethiopia by a full 5 years and at the same time Ludolf's very first publication!
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Markham, Gervase.
Cavalarice, or The English Horseman. [...] Newly imprinted, corrected & augmented, with many worthy secrects not before knowne. (London, Edward Allde for Edward White, 1616-)1617.
8 parts in one vol. Titles within wide woodcut borders and numerous woodcut illustrations throughout. Contemporary speckled calf, rebacked preserving original label on spine, 8vo. Second edition of this important manual of riding, breeding, hunting, farriery and veterinary matters (following the first of 1607), by one of the earliest western owners of and dealers in Arabian horses. Markham praises the virtues of Turkish and Barb horses, which are said to be "beyond all horses whatsoever for delicacie of shape and proportion, insomuch that the most curious painter cannot with all his Art amend their naturall lineaments. They are to be knowne before all horses by the finenesse of their proportions, especially their heades and necks, which Nature hath so well shap'd, and plac'd, that they commonly save Art his greatest labour: they are swift beyond other forraigne horses, and to that use in England we only imploy them [...]". With notes on saddles and bits (several illustrated), as well as numerous cures for horse ailments. - "Divided into eight books with separate titles. The 2nd and 3rd books bear the date of 1616" (Huth). The title page itself bears no imprint, but rather has the word "Cavalarice" sandwiched between the dates "16" and "17". - Occasional slight browning or marginal waterstaining; several small wormholes to margins near end. Title with dated 1745 inscription, 17th century ink annotation to title verso (traced by a later hand), 20th century ink annotation and tipped-in auction catalogue description to front free endpaper. From the library of Francis McIlhenny Stifler with his bookplate to front pastedown. Scarce; only three copies of this edition sold at auction in the last 30 years. BM-STC 17335. Poynter 19.2. OCLC 18813278. Cf. Huth 15. Podeschi/Mellon 18. Graesse IV, 403. Mennessier de la Lance II, 156. Not in Wellcome.
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Pococke, Edward.
Specimen historiae Arabum [...]. Accessit historia veterum Arabum ex Abu'l Feda: cura Antonii I. Sylvestre de Sacy. Edidit Josephus White. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1806.
Large 4to. XV, (1), 573, (3) pp. Title-page with engraved illustration, aquatint frontispiece (author's portrait) by W. N. Gardiner after S. Harding and 1 full-page plate, drawn and etched by J. Storer. Set in roman and Arabic types, with incidental Greek and Hebrew. Contemporary boards, spine with printed label. Untrimmed, leaving all deckles intact. Second edition of Pococke's elaborate "Specimen historiae Arabum", first published in 1650. Based on Bar Hebraeus's "Mukhtasar fî'l-Duwal", it includes detailed essays on Arabic science, literature, religion, and history. The main text set in Richardson's long-bodied English Arabic, with the notes in Caslon's Arabic types. - Slightly browned, otherwise in very good condition and wholly untrimmed. From the library of the Ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes. Schnurrer 140. OCLC 643939358. Cf. Fück 88 (1650 ed.). Graesse V, 373 (1648 ed.).
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Roberts, A.
The adventures of (Mr T. S.) an English merchant, taken prisoner by the Turks of Algiers, and carried into the inland countries of Africa: with a description of the kingdom of Algiers, of all the towns and places of note thereabouts. Whereunto is added a relation of the chief commodities of the countrey, and of the actions and manners of the people. Written first by the author, and fitted for the publick view by A. Roberts. London, (William Wilson and) Moses Pitt, 1670.
Small 8vo. (8), 252 [but 254], (2) pp. (includes final leaf of ads). Contemporary calf, rebacked. First edition of this extraordinary account of an Englishman’s capture by Barbary pirates and subsequent adventures as a slave in Algeria. The narrative is framed as an authentic journal of a deceased traveller, prepared for the press by a friend of the departed. Through this mechanism the reader is taken into a proto-novelistic fantasy, albeit one that must have been informed by genuine experience of Eastern travel. As a slave under numerous masters the author tricks his way variously into employment as the cook to the King of Algiers, is then demoted to Keeper of the King’s Bath and secretly fathers a daughter with one of the King’s wives. After an unsuccessful stint as a gardener’s assistant he journeys in the service of an officer, collecting tribute money with the Algerian army and offers his services as an advisor to the Ottoman governor of Tlemcen. He recounts observations on the various peoples encountered and their customs and peculiarities, marvelling at flying serpents, lions and ostriches and skirmishing with an army of Arabs. Against a backdrop of mosques, minarets and palaces, the narrative is peppered with anecdotes of meetings with Barbary pirates, European renegados, and dalliances with alluring women of the Maghreb. - The author takes particular relish in recounting the details of his sexual adventures: "the women in this country keep much at home, but their minds and affections are more wandering abroad, because they are so recluse; whereas if they had as much liberty as in other countries they would not be so furiously debauch’d: their husbands keep strict guard over them, that when they can escape their eyes, they give the reins to their passion, and labour to satisfy themselves more abundantly; stolen waters are sweet: the more they are forbidden and hindered from variety, the more pleasure and satisfaction they fancy in it [...] had my design been to make conquests in the Empire of Love, I think none could have been more happy [...] this good opinion of my ability spread & increased wonderfully in the town [...]". A separate appended section offers directions for navigating the Barbary coast. The work is of value both as a travel narrative and as a proto-novel reflecting the European fascination with the Orient. This is one of four journeys undertaken by Englishmen in the Ottoman Mediterranean analysed recently by Gerald Maclean in his 2004 study "The rise of Oriental travel: English visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720". - Provenance: small stamp of Bibliothèque Generale, Rabat, to title, first leaf of dedication, and first leaf of text. Small ownership stamp of Alexander Gardyne, 1883, to verso of title. Manuscript bookplate of Henry White, Lichfield, 1820, to pastedown. A very good copy. Playfair, Morocco, 244. Playfair, Algeria, 155. Pforzheimer, 846. Wing S152. Not in Blackmer or Atabey.
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[Urquhart, David].
Turkey and its resources: its municipal organization and free trade; the state and prospects of English commerce in the East, the new administration of Greece, its revenue and national possessions. London, Saunders and Otley, 1833.
8vo. First edition. XV, (1), 328 pp. With lithographic map bound as frontispiece. First edition; flyleaf inscribed by the author to "Mr A. Regnaudin". Important overview of Turkish trade, resources, infrastructure and municipal organisation by the diplomat David Urquhart (1805-77). After two and a half years fighting in the Greek war of independence, Urquhart was invited to accompany Sir Stratford Canning to Constantinople in November 1831 as an advisor during negotiations to settle the Greek boundary. In 1832 Urquhart was sent to Albania to cultivate the support of Rechid Pasha, leading advisor to the Turkish sultan. Urquhart became a great supporter of Turkey, spending most of 1834 in the country, and encouraged the British government to ally itself with Turkey against Egypt. This substantial book was written to inform the British political class of the possible commercial benefits of an Anglo-Turkish alliance. - Some negligible toning to first few leaves. Very good, uncut in original grey paper-covered boards, spine with original printed label, light wear to extremities. Scarce, particularly in original condition as here. Goldsmiths’ 27883. OCLC 65261681.
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Segalen, Victor, Gilbert de Voisins and Jean Lartigue.
Mission archéologique en Chine (1914). L'art funéraire a l'époque des Han. Paris, Paul Geuthner, 1923-1935.
1 text volume (4to) and 2 atlas volumes (38.5 x 28 cm). (6), 304 pp. XI, (5) pp. 4 ff. With 121 illustrations in text and 144 collotype plates in atlas. Text volume in original printed paper wrappers. Atlas in original half cloth, printed paper sides. First edition of an art-historical work on Chinese funeral monuments, dating mainly from the Han dynasty. The work is compiled and written by the French archaeologists Gilbert de Voisins (1877-1939), Jean Lartigue (1886-1940) and Victor Segalen (1878-1919), who was in charge of the expedition. The expedition was cut off early due to the First World War. The two atlasses contain 144 loose collotype plates, showing statues, tombs, mausolea, reliefs and monuments as well as some of the sites, covering the area's of Nanjing, Shanxi, and Sichuan. Scientific descriptions of the plates are given in the text volume, along with small maps of the area, plans of the excavation sites and tombs and schematical reproductions of the artefacts. - Binding slightly rubbed along the extremities. Text volume and plates browned. Overall a very good copy. Couling, p.501.
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Amira, Georgius Michaelis.
[Grammatiqi suraya aw kaldayata (...)]. Grammatica Syriaca, sive Chaldaica. Rome, Giacomo Luna, Tipografia Medicea Orientale (in Typographia Linguarum externarum), 1596.
4to. (44), 480 pp. Contemporary limp vellum with ms. spine title. First - and likely only - edition. The first large-scale Syriac grammar, the third ever written (following those of Caninius, 1554, and Widmanstetter, 1555). Composed by the Maronite priest Jiris Ibn Mikha'il ibn 'Amira, it was printed by the Maronite scholar Ya'qub ibn Hilal (Giacomo Luna), who worked at the Medicean Press under Raimondi and was responsible for the Arabic and Syriac publications issued between 1590 and 1594. In 1595 he started printing on his own, and possibly took over some of the types of the Vatican Press. The work is listed as a Propaganda Press imprint ("olim typis nostris impressi") in Amadatius's 1773 "Catalogus", which shows the continuity that was felt to exist between the Medicean Press, the intermediate stage of Luna and Stephanus Paulinus, and the Propaganda Press. In the preface Raimondi is mentioned as the instigator of the work. - The 24 pt Syriac "serto" types were cut in 1590 by Jean Cavaillon for the Medicean Press. In the beginning a Syriac alphabet is presented, in three different scripts: "estrangelo" (this word possibly here used for the first time), "serto", and a Nestorian script possibly in type. This Nestorian script, a cursive form of estrangelo, is introduced here for the first time. In 1633 a slightly different type-face was used for Bellarmino's Catechism. - Some browning and brownstaining throughout, as common; the first few quires loosened. 18th century library stamps to title page; bookplate of Flavio Camillo Borghese, Prince of Sulmona (1902-80), on pastedown. Quite rare; a second edition, supposedly produced in 1645 (cf. Nasrallah, p. 10), is not attested in libraries. Edit 16, CNCE 1541. Adams A 965. BM-STC Italian 356 (s. v. "Jiris"). Brunet I, 231. Zenker, p. 132, no. 1534. Smitskamp, PO 184. Vater/Jülg 388. Nestle 13. Duverdier, Impressions, 198. OCLC 7238840.
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[Blisset, Captain].
Travels in South-Western Asia. Dublin, J. Jones, 1823.
12mo. 180 pp. Rebound in green buckram. Title page with engraved vignette of a Kangaroo and three full page engraved plates. First edition. - A third hand account of the travels of one Captain Blisset, "an Englishman of birth and large fortune", in company with William Walsh, from Bombay, to the Arabian Gulf, having toured which they pass on to Muscat and Mecca, thence to the Holy Land. Nothing seems to be known of Blisset. Possibly a fictitious account, but the detail seems firmly based on fact, save for the incongruous Kangaroo on the title page.
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Constantinople Peepshow.
La Fête du Bairam à Constantinople. / Das Bairams-Fest in Constantinopel. / The bairam ad Konstantinople. [Paris?], ca. 1815.
Oblong 8vo (168 x 228 mm). Hand-coloured lithographed upper cover and 7 hand-coloured lithographed scenes bound concertina-style and extending to approximately 850 mm. A fine example of a peepshow, consisting of six cut away scenes and one back scene on the inside of the lower cover. When viewed through the holes in the upper cover a lively, three-dimensional scene is revealed, a festival crowd in a long street of Constantinople, terminating at the port. An intact example of a fragile piece. No copies recorded in OCLC. - Some soiling and wear to cover, bellows intact, minor damage to a few figures, minor spots of toning.
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Frenzel, F. A.
Joseph wird verkauft. Berlin, A. Sacco, ca 1860.
Toned lithograph. 375:540 mm. From a series of illustrations depicting the Old Testament story of Joseph within oriental scenery of bedouins, palms, and camels. Joseph (Yusuf) is regarded by Muslims as a prophet (Qur'an, suras vi, 84; xl, 34), and a whole chapter Yusuf (sura xii) is devoted to him, the only instance in the Qur'an in which an entire chapter is devoted to a complete story of a prophet. - A few edge flaws, some repaired, with some browning and staining.
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Langren, H. F. van.
Deliniantur in hac tabula, Orae maritimae Abexiae, freti Mecani: al Maris Rubri-Arabiae [...].
Copper engraving (from J. Huygen van Linschoten, Itinerario, 1596). Printed on 2 joined sheets. 385 x 535 mm. Matted. Famous map of the Arabian Sea between Cyprus and northern Sumatra from one of the ed. 1596-1644. "Probably the first detailed navigation chart printed for the Indian Ocean and the Arabian sea" (Al Ankary 148). Tibbetts 46. Al Ankary 148f. Gole, Early Maps 8. Schilder, MCN V, p. 140 & VII, p. 220/1. Clancy 70. Clancy/R. 67 (all illustrated).
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Nunez, Antonio [i. e., Victorino José da Costa].
Relação do admiravel phenomeno, que appareceo na noyte de 5 de Agosto deste presente anno sobre a Cidade de Constantinopla, es do discurso, que sobre à sua observação fez hum Araba, traduzida do idioma Italiano, e escrita no Portuguez. Lisbon, Miguel Rodrigues, 1732.
4to. 8 pp. Early 20th c. wrappers, using a contemporary French print as a dust jacket. Rare account of a celestial phenomenon observed in the early days of August 1732 over the Seraglio in Constantinople, purportedly accommodating information translated from Arabic first into Italian and then into Portuguese. - Some staining; traces of vertical and horizontal folds trat preceded the binding (with a few minor holes in the paper along the folds). Da Silva (Dicc. Bibliogr. Portuguez) VII, p. 445, no. 226 (s. v. da Costa). OCLC 35580751.
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[Slavery].
Der Sclavenhandel. La vente d'Esclaves. No place, ca 1800.
270 x 400 mm. Aquatint in contemporary hand colour, engraved by "J. L. T." after "J. R. P." Three partly exposed women before a large tent, being advertised and inspected by several men dressed in fine oriental garb. On the left is another woman whose price is under discussion, while the background shows date palms and two dromedaries. - Rather severely stained with waterstains and a few small holes in the blank margin; some scuff marks in the image; trimmed closely with loss to lower left corner. A very appealing print in unsophisticated condition. Rare.
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Thomson, Charles.
The History of Mahomet, That Grand Impostor. Glasgow, J. & M. Robertson, 1783.
8vo. 40 pp. Modern marbled wrappers. Third edition, following two editions published in Edinburgh in 1781 and 1782. The pamphlet purports to give "a minute account of his parentage, rise and progress, his miraculous journey to Jerusalem, and from thence, through the seven Heavens. Their distance one from another. His access to the Divine Presence; and what marvellous things he saw and heard. His robberies and wars. His wives and concubines; with a particular account of his death and burial. Also, an account of the principal tenets of religions taught by that impostor and his followers, etc." - Browned throughout; final leaf remargined. Rare in all editions. OCLC 316386491. ESTC T167642. Not in Chauvin or Gay.
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[Biblia arabico-syriaca - Evangelium].
Sacrosancta Jesu Christi Evangelia jussu Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide ad usum ecclesiae nationis Maronitarum edita. Rome, Typis Sacrae Congreg. de Propag. Fide, 1703.
Folio (256 x 370 mm). (36), 431, (15) pp., final blank f. With printer's device to title page, woodcut headpiece and four half-page woodcuts of the Evangelists. Printed in red and black throughout. Contemporary paper boards. The Maronite edition of the Gospels in Syriac and Carshuni (following the Roman Arabic Bible of 1671), including the Peshitta text. Edited by Faustus Naironus Banensis and Josephus Banesius for use as a service-book in Maronite churches and dedicated to Cardinal Barberini, this was published as the first volume of the "Novus Testamentum Syriacum, et Arabicum". - Some browning and occasional foxing, marginal waterstaining near beginning. Chapter and verse numbers supplied in the margins in ink by a late-18th century owner. An untrimmed, wide-margined copy in the original temporary boards as issued. Very scarce. Schnurrer 338. Darlow/Moule 1742 & 8968. OCLC 254265613.
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Hamdi Bey, Osman / Launay, [Victor] Marie de.
Les costumes populaires de la Turquie en 1873. Constantinople, imprimerie du "Levant Times & Shipping Gazette", 1873.
Folio (280 x 355 mm). 3 consecutively paginated parts in one vol. 319, (1), VII, (1) pp. With 74 plates after photographs by Sébah. Early 20th century half morocco with giltstamped spine title. First edition. The three sections are devoted to "Turquie d'Europe" (including Greece), "Ilas ottomanes" (including Cyprus), and "Turquie d'Asie" (including Mecca and the Lebanon). The plates are based on studio portrait photographs by Pascal Sébah (1823-86), then at his peak. - Sébah's Istanbul studio catered to the western European interest in the exotic "orient" and the growing numbers of tourists visiting the Muslim world who wished to take home images of the cities, ancient ruins in the surrounding area, portraits, and local people in traditional costumes. "Sebah rose to prominence because of his well-organized compositions, careful lighting, effective posing, attractive models, great attention to detail, and for the excellent print quality" (Gary Saretzky). - Occasional brownstaining, otherwise a good copy. Atabey 551. Blackmer 957. Lipperheide Lb 65. Colas 1374. Hiler 411.
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Launay, [Victor] Marie de / Montani Effendi.
[Usul-i mimari-î Osmanî]. L’Architecture Ottomane. Ouvrage autorisé par Iradé Impérial et publie sous le patronage de Son Excellence Edhem Pacha, Ministre des Travaux Publics, Président de la Commision Imperiale Ottomane pour L'Exposition Universelle de 1873, à Vienne. / Die Ottomanische Baukunst [...]. Constantinople, Imprimerie et Lithographie Centrales / Pascal Sebah, 1873.
Folio (390 x 518 mm). VII, (1), 81, (4), 82-86, (2) pp.; 58 pp. With 190 lithographed plates (14 in colour). Modern full black morocco gilt, spine in six compartments gilt, remains of original wrapper cover title inset within lower cover. First and only edition of "the earliest comprehensive study on the history and theory of Ottoman architecture" (Ersoy, p. 117). Only a few copies of this rare work, produced to the most exacting standards of the day, appear to have been printed. It was produced under the patronage of Edhem Pasha, president of the Imperial Ottoman Commission for the Vienna Exhibition of 1873. The text (in German and French, followed by Turkish) consists of a series of monographs. The entire work was "prepared [...] by a diverse group of artists, architects, and bureaucrats who had close professional ties with the palace. The text begins with a lengthy historical overview that embodies a pioneering attempt to define and represent the entire Ottoman architectural past according to the norms of modern historiography [...] The editor of the whole volume, and the author of a substantial portion of the original text, was the amateur historian and artist Victor Marie de Launay, a 'naturalized' Frenchman who held a secretarial position in the Ministry of Trade and Public Works [...] With a keen scholarly interest in architecture, art, and traditional crafts, Marie de Launay, throughout his lengthy bureaucratic career in the imperial capital, was deeply involved in the representation of the Ottoman state in the world expositions [...] The expertly crafted plates that supplement the text of the 'Usul' include plans, elevations, and section of various Ottoman buildings as well as a rich panoply of decorative details and ornamental patterns, all meticulously depicted in accordance with the academic standards of the Beaux-Arts model [...] Accompanying the monochrome illustrations are fourteen chromolithographic plates (printed in the Sébah studios in Istanbul), skillfully drafted with vibrant and sharply delineated colors. In the superior technical quality and graphic precision of its illustrations, the 'Usul' is duly comparable to its highly acclaimed European counterparts, such as Owen Jones's 'The Grammar of Ornament' (London, 1956), Auguste Racinet's 'L'ornement polychrome' (Paris, 1869), or Jules Bourgoin's 'Les arts arabes' (Paris, 1873). Thus, leaving aside the intellectual scope of its text, the 'Usul' must be considered an artistic specimen in and of itself, conceived as a unique showcase of Ottoman technical competence in the art of publishing" (ibid., p. 117-120). The set is not infrequently encountered incomplete: even the Blackmer copy lacked a plate, and that of William Morris (now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Library) lacked three. - Occasional slight brownstaining (not concerning plates), but entirely complete and finely bound to style. Blackmer 956. OCLC 5465203. A. Ersoy, "Architecture and the Search for Ottoman Origins in the Tanzimat Period", in: J. Bailey et al. (ed.), History and Ideology [Leiden 2007], p. 117ff. Not in Atabey.
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Liguori, Alfonso Maria de' (li-Alfunsiyus Likuri).
[Kitab al-Isti'dad lil-mawt.] Apparecchio alla morte ossia considerazioni sulle massime eterne. Utili a tutti per meditare ed ai sacerdoti per predicare. Rome, Francesco Bourliè, 1829.
Large 8vo. VIII, 488 pp. With an engraved frontispiece captioned in Arabic. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped spine. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. First Arabic edition of this classic ascetical work by Saint Alphonse de Liguori (1696-1787), first published in Italian in 1758 and translated by Maksimus ibn Jurjis Mazlum, archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo. Printed in Arabic throughout save for the preliminary matter. A second Arabic edition was prepared in 1851 by the Franciscans of Jerusalem. - Old red library stamp of the Roman Jesuit College on the title page; handwritten ownership on flyleaf opposite: "Dono del medesimo autore alla Bibl. degli scol. teol. del Coll. Rom.". Some occasional brownstaining and loosening of quires, still a very good copy. Only three copies known in libraries internationally (Yale; BSB Munich; Naples). OCLC 702211341. ICCU NAPE\032122.
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Liguori, Alfonso Maria de' (li-Alfunsiyus Likuri).
Libro di meditazioni sopra le massime eterne e la passione di Gesù Cristo per ciascun giorno della settimana [...]. Tradotto dall' Italiano in idioma Arabo [...]. Rome, nella stamperia della Sagra Congregazione di Propaganda Fide, 1827.
8vo. 288 pp. Contemporary mottled full calf with giltstamped spine. All edges red. Very rare, sole Arabic edition of the Meditations on the Passion of the Christ written by Saint Alphonse de Liguori (1696-1787) and translated by Maksimus ibn Jurjis Mazlum, archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Aleppo. Printed in Arabic throughout save for the title page. - Old library stamp from Liège (Belgium) under the approbation opposite the title: "Congreg. Missiona. Oblat. M.U. Domus Stud. Leodiensis". Some occasional brownstaining and loosening of quires, still a very good copy. Only three copies known in libraries internationally (Poitiers BU Droit-lettres; Montecassino; Biblioteca Palatina Parma). OCLC 494549222. ICCU RMLE\026783.
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Meinertzhagen, R[ichard].
Birds of Arabia. Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd, 1954.
4to. XIII, (1), 624 pp. With 19 colour plates, 9 photographic plates, 53 text illustrations, 35 text maps, and a folding map of the Arabian Peninsula (48 x 50 cms) in a lower cover pouch. Publisher's original orange cloth with green spine title; no dust jacket. First edition of the author's magnum opus. - Stamp of the Göteborgs Museum (Zoological Dept.) on flyleaf; in excellent condition. OCLC 1836187.
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Michaelis, Johann David.
Arabische Grammatik, nebst einer Arabischen Chrestomathie und Abhandlung vom Arabischen Geschmack, sonderlich in der poetischen und historischen Schreibart. Zweite, umgearbeitete und vermehrte Ausgabe. Göttingen, (Johann Christian Dieterich for) Victorius Boßiegel, 1781.
8vo. (2), 8, (III)-CXII, 136 (Arabic), 256 pp. Contemporary marbled limp boards with ms. title to spine. The final edition of the venerable Arabic grammar first published by Erpenius in 1613, the work that dominated Western instruction in the Arabic language for two centuries. After re-issues (with various amendments) by Deusing (1636), Golius (1656), and Schultens (1748 and 1767), the Göttingen Biblical scholar Michaelis produced a German translation in 1771. "In the long preface [...] Erpenius's grammar is characterised as still the best one in existence for Hebrew and Arabic, and as regards any Oriental language second only to the author's father's Syriac grammar" (Smitskamp, p. 278). This second edition, published a decade later, omits the name of Erpenius: "owing to the many additions (for the greater part unneccessary according to Schnurrer) the work may now be called Michaelis' own" (Smitskamp). It was not until 1810 that Silvestre de Sacy's "Grammaire Arabe" would produce an actual advance in the field. - Binding rubbed; occasional brownstaining to interior; several old ownerships and acquisition notes to insides of covers. A good, untrimmed copy. Schnurrer p. 83f., no. 120. Smitskamp, PO 283. Fück p. 65 & cf. 119f.
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Pfeiffer, August.
Jahr-Opfer, welches dem durchleuchtigsten, hochgebohrnen Fürsten und Herrn, Hn. Johann Georgen dem Andern, Hertzogen zu Sachsen, Jülich, Cleve und Berg [...] bey Eintretung des sechszehn hundert und siebentzigsten Jahrs nach der Heilbringenden Geburt Christi, durch einen unterthänigsten Glückwunsch, in funfzehen Haupt- und auswertigen Sprachen [...] abstattet M. Augustus Pfeiffer [...]. Wittenberg, Elias Fiebig for the heirs of Hiob Wilhelm Fincelius, 1670.
4to. (32) pp. With many woodcut type specimens. Disbound. Only edition; one of several variant issues. - A congratulatory publication by the prolific Saxon oriental scholar August Pfeiffer (1640-98) who was said to know seventy languages. The present rare work is dedicated to the Duke of Saxony Johann Georg II on the occasion of his 15th anniversary as Elector. It contains 15 celebratory poems in the world's principal languages German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew (with Latin literal translation), Chaldaic (with Latin transliteration and literal translation), in the Jerusalem dialect, in Syriac (with Latin literal translation), Samaritan, Arabic, Ethiopian, Farsi, Ottoman Turkish, Coptic, Armenian, and Chinese (all with Latin transliteration and literal translation). The end is brought up by a "fusa vacui" (or stopgap), namely verse 3 of Psalm 113 in no fewer than 35 different languages (Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopian, Samaritan, Farsi, Ottoman Turkish, Armenian, Coptic, Iberian, Greej, Latin, Italian, Sardinian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Saxon, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, English, Scots, Irish Gaelic, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Chinese, Nahuatl, Inuit, and Quechua. - Browned throughout due to paper; binding loosened; old ownership to title-page and page numbers throughout, but trimmed rather closely. This copy was bound from a defective set of sheets: several leaves (3 and 4 in each gathering) show a hole through the middle of the page, resulting in loss of text to several poems (mainly affecting Chaldaic, Arabic, Turkish, and Coptic). VD 17, 12:161548X. Not in Jöcher or J./Adelung.
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Treccio, Domenico.
Vita, martirio, morte, et miracoli de' Santi Leontio, e Carpoforo, dell' antica, e nobile famiglia Araba Vicentina [...], & della glor. verg. Eufemia, & Innocentia, loro sorelle. Vicenza, Domenico Amadio, (1613).
8vo. 144 (but: 150) pp. With a full-page woodcut (crucifixion) after the preface. Contemporary limp paper boards. Only edition of this life of the Saints Leontius and Carpophorus, Christians martyred under the Diocletianic Persecution early in the 4th century. Their relics where brought from Rome to Vicenza, where both are still revered. According to tradition, they were physicians of Arab extraction, their father having hailed from Syria. This account of their martyrdom and miracles also includes a life of their sisters Euphemia and Innocentia. - Some browning and waterstaining throughout. First quire loosened and reinforced in the gutter; several erroneous page numbers corrected by a contemporary hand. A hole in the upper board cover. Very rare: only two copies known in libraries (Montecassino and Bertoliana Vicenza). ICCU VIAE\002487.
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Eisenberg, [Friedrich Wilhelm] von.
Wohleingerichtete Reitschule, oder Beschreibung der allerneuesten Reitkunst, in ihrer Vollkommenheit, durch nöthige Schulen erkläret. Amsterdam & Leipzig, Arckstee & Merkus, 1746.
Oblong folio (390 x 257 mm). 2 vols. in one. 56 ff., 63, (1) pp. With engr. title page and 59 engr. plates by B. Picart. Contemp. calf with gilt spine. Marbled pastedowns. Rare first German edition of Eisenberg's famous riding school, which boasts beautiful illustrations of horses and horsemen (repeated from the 1727 French original edition). Arabian horses in particular are lauded as "the finest produced by the Orient. They are exceptionally fine animals, especially those from the hills of Mokha [...] Arabian horses are full of fire and vigour in general and are possessed of a great natural agility [...] Their start is like lightning, and so they are incomparable for racing and tournaments, for they are skillful as well as swift". - Binding rather chafed in places; hinges beginning to crack. Some edge damage to plate IV; some browning or brownstaining to margins. From the collection of the Leipzig jurist and later senior alderman of the Leipzig council, Christian Gottlob Bose (1726-88), with his autogr. ownership "C. G. Bose. 1748" on the printed title. The Boses, a wealthy Leipzig family of merchants and aldermen, were close friends of the family of the composer Johann Sebastian Bach. While it was known that the twelve-year-old Christian Gottlob had taken violin lessons with the theologian J. C. Weiß, the young law student's passion for horses - an expensive hobby, but well within the means of any son of the gold and silver manufacturer Georg Heinrich Bose (1682-1731) - was hitherto unknown. Lipperheide Tc 42. Jöcher/Adelung II, 854. Cf. Mennessier de la Lance I, 438. Huth 1727 & 1747. Cohen/R. 345. Hoefer XV, 774. OCLC 248061472.
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Lizars, Daniel.
Arabia with the adjacent Countries of Egypt & Nubia. Edinburgh, 1828.
Hand-coloured engraved map (510 x 405 mm). Includes excellent detail in along the west coast of the Red Sea and in Egypt and Nubia. The Route of the Persian Caravans across Arabia is shown, as is a second route. - In good condition. Not in Tibbetts, Al Ankary or Al-Qasimi.
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Longhi, Gioseffo.
Gran Cairo. Bologna, Longhi, 1670.
945 x 620 mm. Engraved view on 2 sheets joined, letterpress text pasted below (4 columns in Italian, 4 columns in Latin: "Descrittione del gran Cairo [...] Cairi quae olim Babylon") with publisher's imprints. Watermark Panzano. Unrecorded in the standard bibliographies and without counterpart in western libraries, this unique, large-scale view of Cairo reflects the economic and cultural effervescence of the second-largest city in the Empire: under Ottoman rule since 1517 and having expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel, Cairo in the latter half of the 17th century was second only to Constantinople. The Ottoman influence may be discerned in the people's clothing in the foreground as well as in the city's architecture. On the river Nile, the map depicts numerous trade boats and sailors. To the left are soldiers battling as part of a tournament; on the right are the Sphinx (wearing a necklace!) and the famous pyramids of Giza: those of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, as well as the smaller pyramids. The centre of the city shows numerous mosques and gardens. The letterpress text pasted under the engraving provides mostly historical and geographical information (in Italian and Latin). - Longhi's panorama seems to draw various aspects from previous works to create its own original representation of the Egyptian city. Indeed, it bears some resemblance to Braun and Hogenberg's 1572 "Cairos, quae olim Babylon, Aegypti maxima urbs", published in their famous "Civitates orbis terrarum". There are also similarities with Donato Bertelli's "La gran città del Cairo" (Venice 1575), as well as with the map of "Le Grand Caire" produced by the French soldier and traveller Henri de Beauveau (published in his "Relation journaliere du voyage du Levant", Nancy 1615). Ultimately, these plans probably all derive from a 1549 woodcut panorama credited to Matteo Pagano (or a Venetian engraving derived from it), as they all depict the city from the same viewpoint and on a similar scale. Longhi's map even takes up some of the ornaments of the Braun/Hogenberg map, such as the two people riding on a horse and a donkey in the foreground, though the antiquities as well as the numerous irrigation wheels are here shown in much greater detail. - According to scholars, Gioseffo (Giuseppe) Longhi (1620-91) issued a series of views of Italian and foreign cities between 1654 and 1674. A publisher, bookseller and archiepiscopal printer, he was active in Bologna from 1650 to the time of his death. Not only did he publish maps, but he was also a prolific literary editor, notably publishing all the dramatic works of the Italian playwright Giacinto Cicognini. - Some small marginal tears repaired; slight marginal fraying to upper left. Cf. Tooley, Mapmakers III, 150 (for Giuseppe Longhi); Schulz, Venice 70 (for Arrigoni/Bertarelli).
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Mercator, Gerard.
Tab. VI. Asiae, Arabiam Felicem, Carmaniam ac Sinum Persicum comprehendens. Amsterdam, 1695.
Hand-coloured engraved map (485 x 340 mm). Striking old color example of the second edition of Mercator's Ptolemaic map of the Middle East, first issued in the 1695 edition of Mercator's Geographia, based upon the works of Claudius Ptolemy. Mercator's map was a landmark in the mapping of the Arabian Peninsula, being the last published edition of Ptolemy and without question the most heavily researched and studied of all editions by its maker. Ptolemy had originally drawn on the accounts of travelers and sailors and though the information was secondhand and often inaccurate it represented the most advanced account of the world's geography at that time. In the case of Arabia, Ptolemy overestimated both the width of the southern part of Arabia and the size and shape of the Persian Gulf. Arabia Petrea and Arabia Deserta are both placed in the north and Arabia Felix is the term applied to the whole peninsula, rather than to the southern portions of it. Ptolemy's map, as interpreted by European cartographers such as Mercator, was hugely influential and served as a standard for European mapping of the peninsula for many years. Tibbetts 39. Al Ankary 262. McMinn 15. Not in Al-Qasimi.
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Raunkiaer, Barclay.
Gennem Wahhabiternes Land paa Kamelryg. Beretning om den af det Kongelige Danske Geografiske Selskab planlagte og bekosterde forskningsrejse i Ost- og Centralarabien 1912. Copenhagen, Gyldendalske boghandel, Nordisk forlag, 1913.
8vo. (4), 304 pp. With a frontispiece showing the author in Arab garb, 88 illustrations in text, most of them reproductions of drawings and photographs by the author, and a folding map loosely inserted in a pocket at the end. Publisher's green cloth. First and only edition, in the original Danish, of an account of a journey through the Arabian Peninsula. Sponsored by the Royal Danish Geographical Society, Barclay Raunkiaer (1889-1915) set out to penetrate the hitherto unexplored deserts of south-east Arabia. Although the traveler came equipped with a modest amount of scientific instruments and a camera, the use of these became almost impossible. The foreigner was looked on with suspicion by the Arabs and Raunkiaer could only use his camera, with great risk, at certain unwatched moments (p. 12). At the beginning of 1912, the traveler reached Kuwait, where he stayed at the palace of Sheikh Mubarak. Since it was Mubarak's policy to keep Kuwait free of foreign interference, it took some active lobbying of the British envoy to convince the Kuwaitis that Runkiaer was a harmless traveller. After that, it seems that the Dane enjoyed a certain amount of freedom, as numerous photographs, including one of pearl-fishers and a portrait of Sheikh Mohammed, testify. Raunkiaer was very impressed by the volume of trade in Kuwait, which he considered to be the most important trading town on the east coast of Arabia. - In Kuwait, Raunkiaer became seriously ill, but his tuberculosis was undiagnosed. After a period of rest, he travelled further to Riyadh. As the first western traveller in the city in half a century, Raunkiaer was graciously received by Ibn Saud. After a short stay in Riyadh, Raunkiaer followed a caravan which mostly consisted of 150 pearl-fishers bound for Bahrain. During a stay in Hofuf, where the book ends, Raunkiaer's health became worse and he sailed to Bahrain to recuperate. From there he travelled back to Copenhagen via Bombay. After a few years working for the East Asiatic Company, Raunkiaer died from tuberculosis. - Shortly after the appearance of the Danish edition, the book was translated into German. T. E. Lawrence, who considered it to be one of the "readable Arabian books", helped facilitate an English translation in 1916, which was privately printed by the Arab bureau in Cairo. - Inscribed by the author to the Danish historian of religion Ditlef Nielsen (1874-1949), with and a few annotations in pencil in the final chapter. Binding slightly worn along the edges, with a small stain on the title. Endpapers foxed with the text browned; some small random pen marks at the lower margin of p. 47. The map with a few tears along the folds, most of them expertly repaired; a very good copy. Facey, Kuwait by the first photographers, pp. 50-51; "Mr. Raunkiaer's expedition in east-central Arabia", The geographical journal XL (1912), pp. 331-332; "Danish expedition to Arabia", The geographical journal XLIV (1914), pp. 85-86; not in Howgego.
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Ridinger, Johann Elias / Engelbrecht, Martin.
"Unterschiedliche Arten der Pferde und Manier zu reiten" ("Various kinds of horses and manners of riding"). No place, mid-18th c.
8 engravings, 255 x 180 mm each. Attractive series of horses (and mules) used in Arabia, Germany, England, Spain, Tartary, Turkey, and Hungary. - Captions and four-line descriptions in German and French.
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Tallis, John.
Arabia. London, Rogers, 1851.
Hand-coloured engraved map (355 x 263 mm). Gorgeous full color example of Tallis's map of Arabia. Includes decorative vignettes showing Mount Sinai, Arabs, Camel and Arab Women. Engraved for R. Montgomery Martin's Illustrated Atlas. Tallis was one of the last great decorative map makers. His maps are prized for the wonderful vignettes of indigenous scenes, people, etc. Al-Qasimi 261. Not in Tibbets and Al Ankary.
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[Austrian Foreign Trade].
Jordanien. - Irak. - Iran. - Afghanistan. Vienna, Bundeskammer der Gewerblichen Wirtschaft, 1960.
8vo. 4 vols. 36 pp. (Jordan). 192 pp. (Iraq). 88 pp. (Iran). 52 pp. (Afghanistan). Original illustrated stiff wrappers, each volume with a map on the inside front cover. Collection of four curious foreign trade monographs issued by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, directed at Austrian concerns aiming to do business with the Near and Middle East. With the exception of Iraq, where the revolution of 1958 had just heralded a republic, all countries here discussed were still monarchies. Contains general geographical data and statistics, details on units of measurements, economic structure, and customs of trade.
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Berlioux, Etienne Félix.
The Slave-Trade in Africa in 1872. Principally carried on for the supply of Turkey, Egypt, Persia, and Zanzibar. London, (R. Barrett & Sons for) Edward Marsh, 1872.
Small 8vo. VIII, 64 pp. Later blue cloth with giltstamped spine title. Abridged English version of the author's more extensive treatise "La Traite Orientale: histoire des chasses à la homme, organisées en Afrique depuis 15 ans pour les marchés de l'Orient", aimed at exposing the African slave trade to the Anglo-Saxon world. "The author distinguishes three principal areas of man-hunting: the first is the from the Sudan and the Valley of the Nile to Morocco; the second, the Valley of the Nile itself; the third, the eastern coasts of Africa. Sales concentrate on three markets: the Mediterranean borders of Egypt; the island of Zanzibar; and finally, Arabia" (cf. Gay). E. F. Berlioux (1828-1910) was Professor of History at the Lyceum of Lyon. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 65. OCLC 5664313. Cf. Gay 153. Not in Wilson.
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[Canter, Frans].
Deductie gedaan maken en den Hogen Rade in Holland [...] uit den name ende van wegens Bewindhebberen van de Oostindische Compagnie ter Kamer Amsterdam, eerst requiranten van appointctement van anticipatie, en nu gedaagdens by mandament van revisie, ter eenre, op ende jegens aaltje Fransse, weduwe van Cornelis Canter, Jan Canter, en Hendrik van Greuningen, als in huwelijk hebbende Anna Canter, seggende te zyn moeder, broeder, en zwager respective, van Frans Canter, alle wonende te Amsterdam [...]. [Amsterdam, 1752].
Folio. 28 (misnumbered: 29) pp., 1 blank f., (2) pp. 19th century marbled wrappers. Amsterdam legal injunction against the mother, father, and brother-in-law (formerly defendants and now counterclaimants) of Frans Canter, manager of the VOC factory at Basrah from 1746 till 1750, who had infamously fled his post when he was to be replaced by Tido Baron Kniphausen. Fearing exposure for having embezzled Company funds, Canter had escaped to nearby Grain (Kuwait): "Sig van Bassoura door de vlugt heeft geretireert naar Green" (p. 4, no. 46). He continued his flight by caravan to Aleppo, then to Iskenderun, and finally by ship to Amsterdam, "where the East India Company was unable to get him prosecuted by the autonomous government of this town. - Canter's flight to Grain is a typical manifestation of a basic characteristic of Kuwait. Its essential function in the life of the Gulf at that time was that it was an area outside the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Government of Basra. In this way, it could serve as a refuge for both persons and trade when, for one reason or another, there was risk of trouble in Basra. This little desert trading town was born and continued to grow because of the simple fact of its being outside the troubled area of Ottoman Iraq" (Slot, The Origins of Kuwait, p. 117). Canter is also memorable for having composed, in the course of his escape, the first known letter written in Kuwait. While the original is lost, a contemporary copy made by an Amsterdam notary during these legal proceedings now rests in the General State Archives of the Netherlands (cf. Slot, p. 117-121). - Slight duststaining to the wide margins. A rare survival. Landwehr, VOC, 1020. OCLC 71711399. Not in Knuttel.
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[Hunting].
Certificate of Apprenticeship for Anton Spiallek. Dombrau (Doubrava) in Silesia (now Czech Republic), 29. IX. 1822.
Ink and watercolours on paper, backed with cloth. Calligraphic and armorial headpiece; historiated initials; two coloured illustrations (a hunter loading his gun; a hawk devouring a goose). Four red wax seals. 77 x 55 cms, rolled and stored in a contemporary marbled tube. A certificate of apprenticeship for the hunter Anton Spiallek (Spialleck) of Wiegstädtel near Opava in Silesia, signed by Franz Spialeck (possibly a relation) and four other district hunting officials of Dombrau and Mittel-Suchau (Prostrední Suchá), owned by Richard Baron Mattencloit. The art of hunting had long included falconry also in Silesia, and it was among the favourite pastimes of the nobility.
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Morin, Jean / [Simon, Richard (ed.)].
Antiquitates ecclesiae orientalis, clarissimorum virorum Card. Barberini, L. Allatii, Luc. Holstenii, Joh. Morini, Abr. Ecchellensis, Nic. Peyrescii, Pet. à Valle, Tho. Comheri, Joh. Buxtorfii, H. Hottingeri, &c. Dissertationibus epistolicis enucleatae, nunc ex ipsis autographic editae. Quibus praefixa est Jo. Morini [...] vita. London, George Wells, 1682.
8vo. (20), 211, (1), 129-487, (1) pp. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped arms of Michel Le Tellier. Leading edges gilt. Edges red. First edition. - Correspondence between the Oratorian Jean Morin (1591-1659) and Cardinal Barberini (and others) regarding the project of Pope Urban VIII to unite all schismatic churches of the orient with the Roman church, in which the learned orientalist Morin was instrumental. As such, this constitutes an early and important attempt to systematically address the relations between the Rome and the Christian communities established in Lebanon, Syria and in the rest of the Middle East, containing valuable observations on the Druze, Copt, and other local religious communities. Several portions printed in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac characters. The editor, R. Simon (1638-1712), has prefixed a Life of Morin which "amounts to a diatribe against not only Morin, but the entire Oratorian Congregation" (cf. Wetzer/W.). - From the library of the French statesman Michel III Le Tellier, marquis de Barbezieux (1603-85), minister of state after Mazarin, Chancellor and Keeper of the Seals of France. It was he who counter-signed (with Louis XIV) the Edict of Fontainebleau, revoking the Edict of Nantes and driving the Huguenots from France; he died but a week later. ESTC R5020. Wing M2764 & S3795. Arber's Term cat. I, 473. Jöcher/A. IV, 2125, 11. Wetzer/W. VIII, 1919. Hoefer XXXVI, 594. OCLC 26431901. Cover arms: Olivier pl. 1753, fer no. 4.
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Alvarez de Toledo, Pedro and Maria Osorio y Pimentel.
Three letters to Ferrante Gonzaga, Viceroy of Sicily, two from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo and one from his wife Maria Osorio y Pimentel. Andria (in the Kingdom of Naples), 13 August to 10 September 1539.
Folio (215 x 300 mm). (4); (4); (2) pp. including blanks. (1) Letter in Italian, signed, from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo in Andria to Ferrante Gonzaga, 13 August 1539, with a 23 mm seal bearing Alvarez de Toledo's coat of arms (with a chain of flags) stamped on a slip of paper attached with red wax. (2) Letter in Spanish, signed, from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo in Andria to Ferrante Gonzaga, 3 September 1539, with the 45 mm imperial armorial seal stamped on a slip of paper attached with red wax. (3) Letter in Italian, signed, from Maria Osorio y Pimentel [in Andria] to Ferrante Gonzaga, 10 September 1539, with the remains of what appears to be her husband's 23 mm red wax seal. - Each letter, in brown ink, occupies one page, with the last page containing the address and the sender's seal. The two inside pages of the second and third letter are blank. Each formerly folded for posting, so that the address would have appeared on one side and the seal on the other. Three letters from Pedro Alvarez de Toledo (1484-1553), Duke of Alba and councillor to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and his wife Maria Osorio y Pimentel (1498-1539) to Ferrante Gonzaga (1507-57), Viceroy of Sicily, who commanded the Imperial cavalry fighting the Ottomans in North Africa. They concern the Ottoman fleet marauding in the Mediterranean in 1539, thirteen years after the Ottoman victory at the Battle of Mohács gave them control of much of Hungary and roused Christian fears of their strong presence in Europe, and ten years after Barbarossa established his base in Algiers. The first letter, signed by Alvarez de Toledo, advises Gonzaga that, due to the recent loss of Castelnuovo to the Turks, he has given orders for vigilance and defensive preparations on the island of Lipari. He asks Gonzaga to supply any assistance the islanders require. The second letter, also from Alvarez de Toledo, advises Gonzaga that he has received a letter dated 30 August 1539 from Andrea Doria (1466-1560) in Brindisi, then Imperial admiral of the Holy League, urging a campaign against Barbary to be carried out forthwith, in order to avoid further damage from the Turks. This followed the defeat of Doria's fleet at the battle of Preveza in September 1538 by the fleet commanded by the Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa (ca. 1478-1546), long feared in Europe as the infamous privateer Redbeard. The third letter is addressed to Gonzaga by Osorio y Pimentel, informing him that her husband has sent news that the Turkish fleet has been sighted off the Capo d'Otranto, some 150 sails having been observed. She also notes that she has informed Francisco de Tovar, governor of the port La Goleta at Tunis. Given that Barbarossa may direct his attention there, she requests that Gonzaga send a frigate to Tunis to warn de Tovar to remain vigilant. - The seal on Osorio y Pimentel's letter is damaged and can no longer be made out, but the faint visible traces appear to match the arms and flags of her husband's seal, and a small part of the imperial seal on his second letter is damaged, but all three letters are still in very good condition. Three letters of 1539 all important primary sources for hostilities between the Ottoman Empire and Christian Europe.
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Après de Mannevillette, Jean-Baptiste d'.
Routier des côtes des Indes Orientales et de la Chine. Paris, Ch. J. B. Delespine, 1745.
Large 4to (203 x 260 mm). (6), LVIII, 254, (2) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With an engraved headpiece. Contemporary full calf, spine rebacked and gilt to style. Leading edges gilt, all edges sprinkled in red. Marbled endpapers. Extremely rare pilot guide to the East Indies, reduced to a single quarto volume from the author's great "Neptune Oriental", published simultaneously. One of the greatest maritime atlases in the history of French cartography, the "Neptune" was devoted to exotic regions (the Middle East including the Gulf, the African coasts, the Indian Ocean and East Indies, Southeast Asia, parts of the Chinese coast, and the Pacific islands). It was compiled by Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Denis d'Après de Mannevillette (1707-80), hydrographer to the French Navy, supported by the French East India Company and the Académie des Sciences. "It was at once hailed as a major achievement and welcomed by navigators throughout the world" (Cat. Nat. Mar. Mus.). Of the present text-only reduction, OCLC lists no more than nine copies worldwide, only one of which in the the U.S. (University of Chicago). - Corners bumped; modern spine gilt in 18th-century style. A good, wide-margined copy. Provenance: 1) From the library of Sir Francis Lindley Wood, 2nd Baronet, of Barnsley (1771-1846), with his bookplate on the pastedown. 2) By descent to his son Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax (1800-85), sometime Chancellor of the Exchequer, with handwritten ownership on the flyleaf. As President of the Board of Control of the English East India Company, Sir Charles Wood was instrumental in spreading education in India. 3) Acquired from the Portuguese trade. Jöcher/Adelung II, 622. OCLC 41102601. Not in Cordier (Sinica), Brunet, Graesse, etc.
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[Arabian Gulf - Bushire].
Bushire (N.H-39, fourth edition). Tehran (N.I-39, third edition). [London], Geographical Section, General Staff, 1951.
Silk-printed colour map, 1:1,000,000. 68 x 62 cm. Classed as "Restricted", this Ordnance Survey map, printed on fabric to sustain extreme conditions of weather and handling, shows the northern end of the Gulf from the Saudi Arabian border and Kuwait, the Shatt Al Arab with Khorramshahr, and the Iranian coastline to Bushire and beyond. The reverse shows the area north of this, including Isfahan and Tehran. - Very rare; in clean and apparently unused condition. Folded. OCLC 249320989.
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Berggren, Guillaume (and others).
Constantinople et Athènes. Istanbul and Athens, [1880s].
Oblong album (370 x 284 mm) with 47 large albumen photographic prints, generally ca. 20 x 26 to ca. 22 x 28 cm, mostly signed and captioned in the negative (in French), mounted on both sides of the album's leaves. Original half calf binding with burgundy cloth covers, title gilt to upper cover. All edges gilt. A rare souvenir album containing 40 photographs of Istanbul and 7 of Athens. The Turkish images are almost exclusively signed by the renowned studio of Guillaume Berggren (1835-1920), the Swedish-born photographer who had come to Constantinople in 1866 and remained there for the rest of his life. Berggren's photographs were particularly popular with Scandinavian, German and Austrian tourists seeking souvenirs of their Middle-Eastern journey. The present album includes landscapes and city views, famous sights such as the Galata Tower and Bridge, the Yeni Cami Mosque, the Hagia Sophia with its interiors, a "shadirvan" fountain for ritual ablutions in front of the Hagia Sophia, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Rüstem Pasha Mosque, Skutari Cemetery, views of the Golden Horn, street scenes, dervishes, the Bosporus, the French embassy in Tarabya, the city port, the steps leading up the Grand Street of Pera (where Berggren's studio was located), etc. The Greek views include Mount Lycabettus, a two-image panorama of the Acropolis, the Olympieion and the so-called Theseion (Temple of Hephaestus). - A few photographs show insignificant loss of contrast, but they are altogether in good condition, mostly preserving their original crispness. A few images captioned in pencil on the backboard. Corners of binding bumped; leather chafed and spine-ends more markedly flawed. A fine collection.
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Du Loir, [Nicolas].
Les voyage [!] du sieur Du Loir, ensemble de ce qui se passa à la mort du feu Sultan Mourat dans le Serrail, les ceremonies de ses funerailles; & celles de l'avenement à l'Empire de Sultan Hibraim son frere, qui luy succeda. Avec la relation du siege de Babylone fait en 1639, par Sultan Mourat. Paris, François Clouzier, 1654.
8vo. (16), 358, (24) pp. (including final errata leaf). Small woodcut vignette to title; woodcut intitials, head and tail pieces. Modern full calf, bound to style. First edition (variant title). - A series of ten letters written from 1639 to 1641 in which Du Loir gives his impressions of Constantinople and the Sultan's court, to which the author was privy as a member of the entourage of French ambassador Jean de La Haye. The originality of this correspondence lies also in the transliteration of several Qur'an verses (letter 5) and in providing the musical source of a Turkish song. The eighth letter includes the Ottoman text (and its French translation) of an account of the conquest of Baghdad, with a bilingual translation from Ottoman into French of the several titles of the Sultan and the other dignitaries of the court. - The author spent some eighteen months in the Levant: while he was in Turkey, Sultan Murad died and Du Loir was present at the coronation of Sultan Ibrahim. He returned to Venice in 1641 after passing through the Morea; the first and the last of the letters give some account of mainland Greece and the islands. "Cet ouvrage, écrit avec conscience, contient sur les moeurs orientales de l'époque des documents utiles pour l'histoire de la Turquie" (NBG XV, 138). - This is the rarer (and probably earlier) variant edition, mentioned in Blackmer, with a different subtitle (instead of "contenu ... sujets"). - Contemporary ownership ("G. Carius") to title; latterly in the collection of the American dietician and professor of medicine Edward E. Cornwall (b. 1866; his ownership signature to the front free endpaper), previously inscribed to N. O. Cornwall "with a merry Christmas". Insignificant browning, but a good copy. Uncommon on the market. BM French (17th) D1038. Aboussouan 286. Cf. Atabey 373f. Blackmer 511. Weber II, 299. OCLC 43056926.
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[Egypt - Suez].
Égypte. Atlas annexé au mémoire sur la communication de la Mer Rouge à la Méditerranée. [Paris, l'Imprimerie Imperiale], 1802.
Folio (354 x 526 mm). (2) pp., 5 engraved folding maps and plans. In the publisher's original blue marbled wrappers. (Includes:) Le Père, [Jacques-Marie]. Mémoire sur la communication de la Mer des Indes à la Méditerranée, par la Mer Rouge et l'Isthme de Soueys. [Paris, l'Imprimerie Imperiale, 1809]. 21-186 pp. (With:) Bois-Aymé, [Aimé] du. Mémoire sur les anciennes limites de la Mer Rouge. 187-192 pp. Modern white boards with giltstamped black spine label. Folio (290 x 442 mm). The five-plate atlas to accompany the mémoire regarding the possibility of constructing a modern canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea via the Isthmus of Suez, which J.-M. Le Père, chief engineer of the Ponts et Chaussées, would submit to Napoleon in 1803. The plates include a hydrographical map of Lower Egypt and the Isthmus, a plan of the port of Suez, a plan and view of the "Fontaine de Moïse", a synoptic chart of the (supposed) various water levels along the Isthmus, and a plan of the city and ports of Alexandria. Even here, in their earliest publication, dated 1802 on the title page, the plates already bear the numbers under which they would be published in 1809 and 1817 within the monumental "Description de l'Égypte", bearing witness to the accuracy with which the editors had planned their famous work. Indeed, the commission to distil into a publication the enormous amount of data accumulated in Egypt by Napoleon's savants had only been established in February 1802, and the table of contents (on the reverse of the title page) specifies that "ces planches font partie du grand Atlas de l'ouvrage de la Commission d'Égypte, état moderne". - Le Père's mémoire itself was not published at all before it formed part of the "Description": a copy of this first publication, removed from part II: État Moderne, volume 1, is included with this set (it would be published independently, with the atlas, in 1815). - During the 1798 campaign in Egypt, Napoleon's officers had discovered remnants of the ancient "Canal of the Pharaohs", a west-east waterway built under Darius I of Persia that linked the Nile and the Red Sea. Napoleon contemplated the construction of a north-south canal to connect the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, and Le Père was commissioned to investigate the possibility of building such a canal. While the plan was abandoned because it wrongly concluded that the sea levels were different and the waterway would require locks, the report was important as a basis for Ferdinand de Lesseps' successful plans for the Suez Canal many decades later. - Occasional foxing to margins of plates, binding somewhat loosened in places, but in excellent condition altogether. Very rare. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 374. OCLC 492528366. Gay 1999.
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