‎Moyen orient‎

‎[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.‎

‎[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.‎

‎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.‎

‎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.‎

‎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.‎

‎[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.‎

‎Host, Matthäus (Matthaeus Hostus).‎

‎Historiae rei nummariae veteris scriptores aliquot insignores [...]. Including: Host, Matthäus. Tres libros de veteribus mensuris ... Host, Matthäus. Quaedam opuscula variae ... [Sardi, Alessandro] (misattributed to John Selden). Liber de nummis ... Labbe, Philippe. Bibliotheca nummaria ... Budé, Guillaume. De asse et partibus ejus libri quinque. Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, 1695 (colophon at the end of Host's works: Jena, Johann Zacharias Nisius, 1692).‎

‎4to. 15 works in 5 volumes, paginated as 3 and bound as 2. (36), 372, (8); (26), "637" [= 535], (9), [lacking 1-2], 3-716, (86) pp. With 2 title-pages in red and black (each with a woodcut decoration, the first of fruits and the second of flowers), 5 of 6 divisional title-pages (2 in red and black) plus numerous drop-titles; 2 engraved portraits (vol. I) and 3 folding tables (1 in vol. I, 2 in vol. II). Further with 4 woodcut foot rulers divided into 16ths, 12ths (inches) and 4ths, woodcut numerical signs, headpieces, tailpieces and decorated initials. Set in roman types with extensive italic and Greek, and incidental fraktur and Hebrew. Contemporary or near contemporary vellum, sewn on 4 vellum tapes laced through the joints, with a hollow back, with manuscript title on each spine. A collection of works devoted primarily to the ancient Hebrew, Greek, Roman and Arabic number systems, numismatics and mensuration, more than half (nominally 3 volumes) comprising the collected works of Matthäus Host (1509-87), numismatist and professor of Greek in Frankfurt an der Oder. After these follow works by Alessandro Sardi (1520-88) (misattributed to John Selden), Philippe Labbe (1607-67) and Guillaume Budé (1468-1540). Host published his most important works on the Hebrew and other Middle Eastern, Greek, Roman and Arabic number systems (plus "astronomical" numbers probably taken from Agrippa and Noviomagus), coins and related subjects in the years 1578 to 1582. His collected works were published in three volumes at Frankfurt am Main, dated 1586 old style (1587 new style), volume 3 containing 10 short works, the first in 4 parts (here numbered I-XIII in the contents but I-X in the titles). Budé's "De asse", first published at Paris in 1514, is generally regarded as the best Renaissance attempt to determine the values of ancient coins relative to each other and to contemporary money. Sardi published his "De nummis" (on numismatics) at Mainz in 1579, but it appears here as the work of the British scholar and lawyer John Selden (1584-1654), with his preliminary note dated from Middle Temple in London, 1 May 1642. Since he does not appear to have published it himself, it is unclear whether he plagiarized it, or whether it was mistakenly attributed to him when published at London in 1675. At that time it appeared together with Labbe's "Bibliotheca nummaria" and Budé's "De asse". Labbe's work first appeared as an appendix to his 1664 "Bibliotheca bibliothecarum" and describes books on the subject of antiquarian coins, medals, weights and measures. The ESTC suggests that "De nummis" in the "1675" London edition of these three works and in the present edition (which has a 1685 Edinburgh copy imprint) are both reissues of the 1579 edition, but comparing the "1675" and "1685" versions in EEBO with the 1579 Mainz edition shows that they represent three different editions and that the "1685" version on EEBO is the present one. No 1685 Edinburgh edition is known, so the reason for the 1685 copy imprint (and for Selden's 1642 note) remains unclear. Pending further study we suppose the "1685" edition was printed ca. 1692 for issue with the 1692 edition of Host's works, which was printed (according to the colophon) by Nisius in Jena and published (according to the imprints) by Johann Georg Lipper in Leipzig and Lüneburg, and by Peter Le Clert in Amsterdam. The present version is a reissue of all these works in the same editions as 1692, but now with the two 1695 title-pages for publication by Van der Aa in Leiden. - Each volume with the 19th-century yellow bookplate on the front pastedown of the library of the Baptist Newton Theological Institution near Boston, which later merged with the Andover Theological Seminary and became associated with Harvard University. - Lacking the divisional title (A1) for the Sardi/Selden, "De nummis", with its 1685 Edinburgh copy imprint. With some browning and foxing throughout, a small tear into the text of one leaf and in the margin of the first folding table. Otherwise in good condition. The binding of the first volume is somewhat dirty and each has one or two of the vellum tapes broken at the hinge, but they are still in good condition. A detailed account of numbers, coins, etc., especially in the Middle East and Greece. STCN (6 copies, incl. 2 incompl.). Cf. ESTC R41079 ("1685" [= ca. 1692] ed., including Host's works only in a note); Smith, Rara arithmetica, pp. 372-375 (1582 ed. of one of Host's works on numbers); for Host: ADB XIII, p. 191.‎

‎Schley, J[akob] van der.‎

‎Carte de la Coste d'Arabie, Mer Rouge, et Golfe du Perse. Tirée de la Carte de l'Ocean Oriental publiée en 1740. Par ordre de M. le Comte de Maurepas. Amsterdam, Schley, [ca. 1745].‎

‎Engraved map (260 x 243 mm). The Dutch edition of Jacques-Nicolas Bellin’s map, from Prévost's "Histoire générale des voyages (Paris, 1746). "This map is perhaps the original of the maps appearing in Prévost" (Tibbetts). Map of Arabia and the Red Sea emphasizes the coastlines and the interior is primarily left blank. The shoals and navigational hazards in the Red Sea and the pearl banks off the coast of Bahrain are also noted. Decorated with a title cartouche. - Well preserved. Tibbetts 267. Al Ankary 173. Not in Al-Qasimi.‎

‎Sébah, [Pascal] / Joaillier, [Policarpe] (studio).‎

‎Souvenir de Constantinople. Constantinople, ca. 1890.‎

‎Folio (368 x 292 mm). Containing 50 albumen prints of Constantinople (ca. 270 x 21 cm each). Red half morocco album with original giltstamped cloth covers; spine blindstamped. Fine period views of the city of Constantinople, by the respected photographic studio of Sébah and Joaillier, showing landscapes as well as monuments, street scenes with merchants, etc. Pascal Sébah (1823-86), a leading Constantinople photographer, was renowned for his well-judged compositions and for the excellent print quality achieved by his technician A. Laroche. His studio, founded in 1857, was continued under his brother Cosimi and his son Jean, later in partnership with Policarpe Joaillier. The studio continued to operate as long as the year 1952. - A representative and fine example of a high-quality album aimed at the 19th century's developing Middle Eastern tourist market.‎

‎Davies, Norman de Garis.‎

‎Robb de Peyster Tytus Memorial Series. (= The Theban Tombs). New York, [The Metropolitan Museum of Art], 1917-1927.‎

‎Elephant folio (380 x 490 mm). 5 vols., comprising: Volume I: The Tomb of Nakht at Thebes. Volume II: The Tomb of Puyemre at Thebes. Part I: The Hall of Memories. Volume III: The Tomb of Puyemre at Thebes. Part II: The Chapels of Hope. Volume IV: The Tomb of the Two Sculptors at Thebes. Volume V: The Ramesside Tombs at Thebes. With 5 frontispieces (4 in color), 178 plates (21 in color), and numerous figures. Original printed wrappers, untrimmed. Limited first edition of this catalogue of the principal tombs at western Thebes published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1917 to 1927, one of 500 atlas folio sets beautifully printed on handmade Van Gelder paper. A magnificent, untrimmed set. - Published in memory of the artist and amateur archaeologist and Egyptologist Robb de Peyster Tytus (1876-1913), this series was published to shed light on the magnificent artistic treasures of the tombs at Thebes. In over 180 folio plates, 25 of which are in color and many of which are folding, statues, paintings, treasures, and the interior plans of the tombs themselves are reproduced in loving detail. - The Robb de Peyster Tytus Memorial Fund was set up by the artist's mother, Mrs. Edward J. Tytus, after his death at the age of 32. For five years the Egyptian Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art received $15,000 which were used to explore the tombs in Sheik Abd-el Qurna and the environs. Norman de Garis Davies (1865-1941) and his wife Nina collaborated with other artists, including Charles K. Wilkinson and H. R. Hopgood, for a decade to achieve the present set. Davies worked on numerous digs in Egypt (including with Petrie at Dendera and with the Egypt Explorations Fund's Archaeological Survey) before being appointed head of the graphics section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's expedition to Egypt in 1907. Along with his wife Nina and his assistant Francis Unwin, he pioneered the use of egg tempera when recording the paintings from tombs, allowing for much more accurate and satisfying results in comparison to watercolours, which, although they rendered the colour with a flat finish, were the standard way of recording tomb paintings before the advent of reliable colour photography. - Insignificant edge flaws to the wrappers. Margins of a few plates very slightly browned; altogether a very clean set. Inconspicuous contemporary bookseller's label of Paul Koehler, Leipzig, to covers of three volumes. OCLC 19290154.‎

‎Frisch, F[riedrich].‎

‎Sovereign. Darmstadt, Ernst Kern, [c. 1850].‎

‎560 x 456 mm. Toned lithograph (the stallion "Sovereign" in its stable at the Royal Württemberg Stud). Captioned in German and English. Fine lithographed portrait of the thoroughbred Sovereign, foaled by Mervinia and the stallion Champion, and thus a descendant of the Godolphin Arabian on the paternal side and of the Darley Arabian by his mother's line (both lines including Marske and Eclipse). The horse, formerly in the stables of King George IV, had in 1841 entered the famous stud of the King of Württemberg, the first Arabian stud in Europe. Drawn from life by the Darmstadt artist Frederick Frisch (1813-86), sometime court painter to the Margrave of Baden, and lithographed by G. Küstner. Frisch had visited the orient on the commission of the King of Württemberg, painting "The Camp of Ibrahim Pasha" and "Ibrahim Pasha's Retreat Through the Desert". He also published lithographed "Sketches from the Orient" (1843). Mainly a painter of animals, Frisch produced great horse paintings, some of which were exhibited at the 1906 Berlin Centennial. Cf. Thieme/B. XII, 491.‎

‎Tirion, Isaak.‎

‎Nieuwe Kaart van Arabia. Amsterdam, J. Keizer, 1731.‎

‎Hand-coloured engraved map (355 x 290 mm). Striking full color example of Tirion's detailed map. The map is highly detailed, including a number of the major roads and caravan routes, including those leading to Mekka and Medina. Two monument-style cartouches contain the title at upper right and three distance scales opposite. "This map shows a great advance on the others by showing the true extent of Turkish power. It has a curious mountain system, dividing the Peninsula into smaller regions" (Tibbets). Although it is mainly based on Delisle's map through de Fer, the map contains much original data. - Very well preserved. Tibbetts 250. Al Ankary p. 330. Al-Qasimi 160.‎

‎[BAPCO].‎

‎Bahrain. (Manama, the Bahrain Petroleum Company Limited [BAPCO]), 1952.‎

‎Small folio (218 x 283 mm). (48) pp. Original wrappers, colourfully illustrated with Islamic geometrical designs. A portrait of Bahrain, illustrated and printed in English and Arabian throughout, showing the country at a critical moment in it development, transitioning from traditional to modern ways of life with the growing importance of the oil industry. Issued on behalf of BAPCO and Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I, Hakim of Bahrain, ruler of Bahrain from 1942 until his death in 1961. - A perfect copy.‎

‎Bizzarri, Pietro.‎

‎Rerum Persicarum historia, initia gentis, mores, instituta, resque gestas [...]. Frankfurt, Andreas Wechel / Claude de Marne & Johann Aubry's heirs, 1601.‎

‎Folio (222 x 337 mm). (8), 644, (32) pp. With woodcut devices on title page (repeated at the end) and several pretty woodcut initials. Modern blindtooled leather binding, spine in six compartments and gilt spine title. Second, enlarged edition (first printed in 1583). Important collection of previously published works about Persia, including the travels of the Venetians Giuseppe Barbaro (1436) and Ambrogio Contarini (1473), "together with several other tracts relating to the Turks, including works by Callimachus, Minadoi, [etc.]" (Sotheby's, Atabey sale, no. 117). - Spine somewhat faded. Rather browned and foxed throughout due to paper, as common, but altogether clean; occasional insignificant worming to margins. Title and final leaf show stains from removed stamps. VD 17, 23:231248Y. Atabey 112. Schwab 47. Graesse I, 433. Brunet I, 956 & VI, 28069. Cf. Adelung I, 139ff. Cicogna I, 360. Cox I, 258. Not in Blackmer.‎

‎Castiglioni, C[arlo] O[ttavio].‎

‎Memoire geographique et numismatique sur la partie orientale de la Barbarie appellée Afrikia par les Arabes, suivi de recherches sur les Berbères atlantiques anciens habitans de ces contrées. Milan, Imprimerie Imperiale et Royale, 1826.‎

‎Large 8vo. 127, (3) pp. Contemporary wrappers. Only edition. - "His principal work in the department of Oriental literature [...] in which the origin and history of those cities of Barbary of which the names occur upon Arabic coins are detailed" (Men of the Time [1868], p. 161). The Italian classicist and numismatist C. O. Castiglioni (1784-1849) was descended from Baldassare Castiglione, author of "Il Cortegiano". This work established his reputation. - Old shelfmark label on wrappers. Some slight brownstaining. An untrimmed, wide-margined copy. Leitzmann 21. Astor Library Cat., Supplement, p. 116.‎

‎(Cotta, P. Massimo).‎

‎[Kitab ul-muhatibat urtuduksijjah dadd bad il-itiqadat ir-rumijjah]. Dialoghi ortodossi contro alcune credenze greche. Uršulim (Jerusalem), Tubia fi dir ar-ruhban al-Fransiskanijjin (Tipografia dei PP. Minori Francescani), 1850.‎

‎8vo. 88 pp. With numerous woodcut head- and tailpieces. Original printed wrappers. Second, expanded edition; directed against erroneous teachings of the Greek Orthodox church in the Middle East. In Arabic throughout save for the preliminary matter. Dedicated to Giuseppe Valerga, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1847 until his death in 1872. In 1868 he became Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. - Wrappers somewhat dust-soiled, otherwise very good. Exceedingly rare; only two other copies known (in the Bavarian State Library, Munich, and the Diocesan Library, Cologne). OCLC 162905370.‎

‎Hunt, G[eorge] H[enry].‎

‎Outram and Havelock's Persian Campaign. London, (Cox & Wyman for) Routledge & Co., 1858.‎

‎8vo. VIII, 352 pp. Frontispiece and 7 tinted lithograph plates after Picken and Walker. Original blue cloth with gilt title to spine. First edition. - An account of the Anglo-Persian War in the year 1857. The author, who had participated as captain in the 78th Highlanders, died from the cholera while the book was under the press. To his narrative, the editor George Townsend has prefixed "a summary of Persian history, an account of various differences between England and Persia, and an inquiry into the origin of the late war". - Cloth a little rubbed; some foxing to frontispiece. Contemporary handwritten ownership to flyleaf; later bookplates. Rare. A Persian translation ("Gang-i Inglis wa Iran dar sal-i 1273 higri-i qamari") appeared in 1984. Wilson 102.‎

‎Lonicer, Philipp (ed. & transl.) / (Menavino, Giovanantonio).‎

‎Chronicorum Turcicorum in quibus Turcorum origo, principes, imperatores, bella, praelia, caedes, victoriae, reique militaris ratio, et caetera huc pertinentia [...] exponuntur. Frankfurt, Johann Wechel for Sigmund Feyerabend, 1584.‎

‎8vo. 2 parts in one vol. (16), 435, (13) pp. (16) , 208, (14) pp., final blank f. With woodcut vignettes to both title pages (the first showing an Ottoman warrior, after J. Amman) and two (repeated) printer's devices at the end. Contemporary vellum. Remains of ties. First octavo edition of Lonicer's collection of Turkish history, previously published in 1578 as a hefty three-volume folio set with woodcuts attributed to Jost Amman. The present issue is a pretty, handily pocket-sized edition minus the illustrations, incorporating several important changes to the text. Book 2 of the first part still comprises Menavino's "Mahometicae leges, religio, vita" in Lonicer's translation, while Aventin's appendix at the end of part 1 is omitted, as is the entire third volume of the folio edition (Barletius's "Scanderbeg"). The beginning of part 2 includes an important new addition: Contarini's "De bello Turcico", with the description of the Battle of Lepanto. - Binding rubbed; large defects to spine. Interior somewhat browned as common with occasional insignificant waterstains to margins. A few contemporary censorship marks in ink; title page shows contemporary ownership "Ex libris fratris Constantini Cruseni Augustiniani" (obliterated) and of the Augustinians' monastery of St Thomas (Kostel sv. Tomáše) in Prague. VD 16, L 2464. BNHCat L 379. BM-STC German 525. Adams L 1456. Göllner 1773. Atabey 729. Graesse IV, 265. Pétrovitch 48. Hammer 1090. Chauvin XII, 248, 1019 (& cf. 266, 1107). Yerasimos 126. Not in Blackmer (cf. 1030 note).‎

‎Oppenheim, Max von.‎

‎Die Beduinen. Leipzig, Harrassowitz, 1939-1968.‎

‎4to. 5 parts in 4 volumes. IX, (1) 1, (1), 387, (2) pp. XVI, 447 pp. XV, 495 pp. XIV,154, 155, (3) pp. With frontispiece to vols. 1, 2 and 4, 32 plates with photograph reproductions, several folding tables and maps in texts, and a total of 6 folding maps, some in end-pocket. Uniform green cloth. First edition of an elaborate work on Bedouin tribes in the Arabian Peninsula, written by the German orientalist and archeologist Max von Oppenheim (1860-1946) in collaboration with Erich Bräunlich and Werner Caskel. Von Oppenheim made various travels to the Middle East in the early 20th century, where he observed and analyzed the lives and cultures of various Bedouin tribes. "Fascination with a society seemingly still free of the constraints of 'civilization' and still governed by a shared traditional code of behaviour underlies the admiration for the Bedouins that Max von Oppenheim shared with many of his predecessors and contemporaries" (Gossman). He gathered his information during nearly forty years, and the first volume of his ethnographic study appeared in 1939, dealing with Bedouin tribes in Mesopotamia and Syria. In 1943 the second volume was published, which dealt with the tribes in Palestine, Hejaz, Transjordan and the Sinai Peninsula. The last two volumes were posthumously published and edited by Caskel (1896-1970), comprising the tribes in Iraq, Iran and north and middle Arabia. Most of the tables show family trees, and tribe members are shown on the plates, along with their names and the year the photo was taken. "Perhaps the most comprehensive work on the locations, genealogies, and interconnections of the Arab Bedouin" (Sweet). - In very good condition, only very slightly browned. Macro 1720. Henze III, 650. L. Gossman, The passion of Max Von Oppenheim: archaeology and intrigue in the Middle East from Wilhelm II to Hitler (2013), p. 18; L. E. Sweet, The central Middle East: a handbook of anthropology and published research on the Nile Valley, the Arab Levant, southern Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Israel (1971), p. 157.‎

‎[Photograph Album].‎

‎Life in England and Military Snap Shots in Iraq and Turkey. Iraq and Turkey, 1912-1920.‎

‎Approximately 120 mounted (usually 2-4 to a page) snap shots ranging in size from 60 x 40 mm to 120 x 100 mm. Brief captions in black ink under almost all the photos. 1/4 leather album. 4to. The first half of the photos show middle class life in Edwardian England. The second, and more interesting half of the photos are snap shots that appear to have been taken by a British officer and include military subjects, scenes of Baghdad and the Euphrates, and views of the Bosporus. - Some photos are faded or have minor spots or light streaks. Wretched-looking lacking backstrip, with covers worn, discolored, and detached.‎

‎Ulloa, Alfonso de.‎

‎Le historie di Europa. Venice, Bolognino Zaltieri, 1570.‎

‎4to. (8), 176 pp. With woodcut printer's device on title page and several woodcut headpieces and initials. 18th century full vellum with giltstamped red spine label. In spite of the subtitle ("nuovamente mandate in luce"), this is the first edition of Ulloa's history of the Ottoman wars in Hungary, including an account of the 1566 Siege of Szigetvár. Though the battle resulted in an Ottoman victory, it halted the Ottoman advance on Vienna that year, and Vienna was not threatened again until 1683. "The Castilian-born Alfonso Ulloa was entrusted with various diplomatic missions by Emperor Maximilian as well as by King Philip II and thus had a first-hand knowledge of the events of the years 1566-1569. Disregarding the frequently panegyrical tone of the account, the book may still be used as a valuable historical source" (Göllner). Apponyi, on the other hand, cautions that "this is nothing but a reprint of Pietro Bizarri's 'Historia', published the previous year [... The book nothing to do with Ulloa's account of the events at Sziget published in his own 'Comentarios' in 1569: apparently, he found it easier to rip off Bizarri than himself ...] Ulloa has the nerve to present this shameless piece of plagiarism to his patron with the most unctuous and swaggering phrases [...] Cautiously, Ulloa shied away only from copying certain personal accounts of Bizarri's, or rather from presenting these experiences of Bizarri's as his own; everything else is reproduced verbatim". - Title page shows some brownstaining, otherwise a clean copy in a pretty contemporary binding. Formerly in the collection of the Marquess of Bute with the family's engraved armorial bookplate (from the library of Luton House, Bedfordshire; pre-1845) on the pastedown. Edit 16, CNCE 38245. Adams U 40. BM-STC Italian 704. Apponyi I, 437. Göllner I, 1271.‎

‎Garzoni, Pietro.‎

‎Istoria della repubblica di Venezia in tempo della Sacra Lega contra Maometto IV., e tre suoi successori, Gran Sultani de' Turchi. Venice, Giovanni Manfrè, 1705.‎

‎Large 4to. (8), 838, (40) pp., final blank f. With several woodcut headpieces. 19th century green half mororcco gilt with marbled covers. First edition. - "Garzoni [1652-1719] was appointed official Venetian historiographer in 1692. His work deals mainly with the Sacra Lega and the Venetian victories against the Turks in the Morea during the war of 1684-90" (Atabey, 2nd ed. only). A second volume, a sequel in name only, deals with the War of Spanish Succession and was not appended until 1716. - Binding rubbed, corners somewhat bumped. Interior shows occasional browning, but largely quite clean. A good, wide-margined copy, this has been annotated throughout in pencil by an Arabic hand, probably in the early 20th century. Rare; no copy of the first edition on the market for 25 years. Brunet VI, 25458. Libr. Vinciana 1032. Graesse III, 82. OCLC 832293066. Cf. Atabey 479 (1707-19 second ed. only). Not in Blackmer.‎

‎Kuntz, Rudolf.‎

‎Abbildungen Königlich Württembergischer Gestütts Pferde von orientalischen Racen. Stuttgart, [Ebner], 1823-1824.‎

‎Oblong folio (550 x 635 mm). Issues I and II (of 3). With 12 (out of 18) tinted chalk lithographs by L. Ekeman-Allesson after R. Kuntz. Wants text and table of subscribers. Stored loosely in 2 original wrappers with title label and green original half calf portfolio with gilt-lettered title and borders. Traces of ties. First and only edition. Commissioned by the Board of the Württemberg Stud, the first Arabian stud in Europe, this almost unobtainable series of large format plates shows the Stud's full-blooded Arabian horses with decorative oriental backgrounds. The plates constitute extremely early examples of chalk lithographs (listed individually by Winkler, Frühzeit der dt. Lithographie, 180, 57). Kuntz (1797-1848) was known for his "excellent depictions of horses" (cf. Thieme/B.); throughout his brief career he studied thoroughbreds in England, Hungary, and Paris as well as in Germany. In 1832 he became Painter to the Court of Karlsruhe, Baden; he suffered a stroke in 1846 and died in the newly-founded Illenau mental hospital. - Very slightly stained in places, three plates slightly browned. Of the utmost rarity. This copy removed from the collection of the House of Hanover, dispersed from 2005 (largely through Sotheby's). Includes a publisher's ad (by L. Harrison, Strand) for "A Series of Lithographic Drawings of Celebrated Horses" after James Ward, dedicated to George IV. Nissen 2327. Thieme/B. X, 444 & XXII, 116. Winkler, Die Frühzeit der dt. Lithographie 180.57.‎

‎[Polo].‎

‎11 photographs. Probably Britain, ca. 1900.‎

‎11 photographs (135 x 87 mm), individually numbered in the negative and mounted on cardboard (170 x 120 mm). Showing polo teams during a match, portraits of athletes with their horses, etc. - A well-preserved, uncommon set.‎

‎Sebah, P[ascal] / Bechard, H[enri].‎

‎Collection of photographs. Egypt. Various Egyptian sites, [1880s].‎

‎14 albumen prints, mainly ca. 27 x 27 cms, but including two smaller prints (ca 20 x 26 cms) on a single board. Boards gilt on 3 sides (535 x 355 mm). A set of large photographs by Béchard and Sébah, showing Egyptian monuments and landscapes, the Tombs of the Kings in Thebes, views of Philae, the Nile cataracts, etc. Captioned in English on the backing boards. - Pascal Sébah (1823-86), a leading photographer of the Middle East, was renowned for his well-judged compositions and for the excellent print quality achieved by his technician A. Laroche. His studio, founded in 1857, was continued under his brother Cosimi and his son Jean. - Béchard was active between 1869 and ca. 1890. "His work is distinguished by the superb quality of his prints and the generally spectacular presentation of even the most common sites, such as the pyramids" (Nissan N. Perez). - Dampstained, soiled and faded; some edge flaws to boards.‎