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Rycaut, Paul.
Histoire de l'etat présent de l'Empire Ottoman: contenant les maximes politiques des Turcs [...] Traduit de l'Anglois de Monsieur Ricaut [...] par Monsieur Briot. Paris, Sébastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1670.
Folio (218 x 282 mm). (12), 382, (2) pp. With separate engraved title-page, 21 engravings in the text, 3 engraved headpieces and 3 engraved initials. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped spine (rebacked preserving the original spine). The rare first French edition (first issue, in-folio) of Sir Paul Rycaut‘s famous Turkish chronicle, drawn from various authentic sources and from the author‘s own observations. "His most important work [...] presents an animated and, on the whole, faithful picture of Turkish manners" (DNB). "This work is regarded as one of the best of its kind with respect to the religious and military state of Turkey" (Cox). "Provides an account of the society and political system of the Ottoman Empire with unprecedented thoroughness" (cf. Osterhammel, Die Entzauberung Asiens, 32). "An extremely important and influential work, which provides the fullest account of Ottoman affairs during the 17th century" (Blackmer). The attractive engravings depict dignitaries and persons of various ranks in their costumes, also including the illustration of a turban. "Rycaut was appointed consul in Smyrna, where he resided for eleven years. His information on the Ottoman Empire was taken from several sources: original records, and from a Polish resident of some nineteen years at the Ottoman court" (Aboussouan). - 18th century ink ownership of Paul Lignon de Brassac on title page; additional ownership ("Dr. Lignon") and notes on flyleaf. Some browning fingerstaining, mainly confined to margins; slight worming affecting upper edge of first two leaves. Binding rubbed; corners bumped. A wide-margined copy. Weber II, 330. Goldsmith R 1262. Aboussouan 806 (lacking a leaf). Graesse VI/1, 108. Cf. Atabey 1069. Blackmer 1464. Lipperheide Lb 19 (all 2nd ed.). Hiler 770 (1686 English ed.). Howgego R 92 (Rouen 1677 ed.). Cox I, 210. Not in Colas.
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Barros e Sousa de Mesquita de Macedo Leitao e Carvalhosa, Visconde de, Manuel Francisco de Santarem.
De l'introduction des procédés relatifs à la fabrication des étoffes de soie dans la Péninsule hispanique sous la domination des arabes; recherches précédées d'un examen sur la question de savoir si ces procédés y étaient ou non connus avant le IXe siècle de notre ère. Paris, Maulde & Renou, 1838.
8vo. 64 pp. Burgundy paper spine. First and only edition. Discusses trade in silk and attempts at silk production in various parts of the Iberian Peninsula, including Portugal, Valencia, Murcia, etc., from ancient times until the 1820s, with some emphasis on the efforts of the Arabs. The second Visconde de Santarem (1791-1856) has been called "the greatest figure in the history of Portuguese cartography" (Cortesão, History of Portuguese Cartography I, 23); in fact, it was Santarem who coined the term "cartographia". He travelled to Brazil with the royal family in 1807 and held various diplomatic posts; he also served as Keeper of the Royal Archives at Torre do Tombo from 1824 until 1833, when he was dismissed for political reasons. Although he spent the rest of his life in Paris, his standing with the Portuguese government later improved to the point that the government funded many of his publications, and appointed him Keeper of the Torre do Tombo without requiring him to return to Portugal. Porbase locates copies at the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Innocêncio V, 435-438. OCLC 458944557.
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Temple, Richard.
The Storming of Schinaass. London, W. Haines, 1813.
Hand-coloured aquatint plate by Clark after Temple. 330 x 485 mm. From the exceedingly rare series "Sixteen views of places in the Persian Gulph", engraved after drawings taken by Richard Temple, a private in his Majesty's 65th regiment during the British attacks against the tribes of the Gulf in 1809. The port of Shinas is located near the border between Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Abbey 389, no. 17. Al-Qasimi, The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf (Milton Park, 1988), pl. 15.
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Torquatus, Antonius.
Prognosticon de eversione Europae & alia quaedam, quorum catalogum sequens docebit pagina. Antwerp, Martin Nutius, 1552.
8vo. 51 ff. (without final blank). Printer's woodcut device on title page. Attractive modern boards. Second edition thus (previously published in 1544) of this collection of smaller treatises on Europe and the Orient. Göllner calls this "a chronicle of contemporary history, spanning the years 1480 through 1532, fuelled by a calculated optimism". Contains the "Prognosticon" by the Ferrarese physician A. Arcoato (ff. 2-10), about the Turkish threat to Europe; A. & C. Cella's "Europae descriptio" (ff. 11-22r); F. Titelmans' "De fide ... Aethiopum" (ff. 22v-28r); D. a Gois, "Legatio Magni Indorum Imperatoris presbyteri Ioannis ... 1513" (ff. 28v-45r), and two treatises on the Ottoman Empire. - Some loss to final leaf (though not to text) professionally remargined. BM-STC Dutch 199. Adams 811. Göllner III, 341.
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[View - Middle East].
Mountainous landscape with Middle Eastern and classical Roman ruins, 6 shepherds with their flocks, several figures riding dromedaries and one riding a donkey, (date?) palms, lakes, etc. [Palestine?, ca. 1910?].
An enormous panoramic view drawn in coloured gouaches on a single, continuous roll of unwatermarked wove paper (70 x 583 cm), the drawing running to the edges of the paper. Rolled and stored in a cardboard tube. A panoramic view of what appears to be a fantasy Middle Eastern landscape, with spectacular mountains in the background, a body of water near each end, and a wide variety of buildings and ruins, some clearly classical Roman and others Middle Eastern. The combination of classical Roman architecture with dromedaries and other Middle Eastern features places it very likely in Palestine, but we have not been able to identify specific buildings. The most distinctive ruin, a round Roman temple with five columns on the viewer's side (perhaps a third of the circle), an entablature above them and a vertical base below them, looks more like the Temple of the Vesta at Tivoli than like any known temple in the Middle East (the columns are not rendered in sufficient detail to determine their order, but they are almost certainly not Ionic and are probably Corinthian). There are also classical Roman aqueducts. The six shepherds with their flocks all wear broad-brimmed hats and have staffs, and two are blowing long, slightly curved horns. Several additional figures with broad-brimmed hats and staffs might be pilgrims, one together with what is presumably his wife. - With a 33 cm tear into the left edge, slightly affecting a mountain and the top of a tree, a few insignificant and much smaller tears and with pin holes about 1 cm from the edges from mounting on a wall, but otherwise in very good condition and with the colours fresh and bright. A spectacular panoramic view of the Middle East, including many classical Roman ruins.
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Walsh, C. W. / Holton, G. F.
Views Around South Persia. A Selection of Camera Studies of Native Types and Views Around Southern Persia, Including the Abadan Refinery of the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. Bristol & London, Vandyck Printers, [mid 1920s].
Oblong 8vo. 53 printed photographs on 27 ff. printed in sepia to rectos only, contained in original printed card covers with oval window. A remarkable series of photographs of the peoples and places of South Persia (modern Iran and Iraq). The first leaf - which contains the title with a small portrait of a street seller - is followed by four leaves showing views of the Abadan Refinery. The remaining leaves show scenes in Mohammerah (now Khorramshahr), Shatt-el-Arab, Dizful (Dezful), Ahwaz (Ahvaz), as well as artistic views of the coast ("Moonlight on the Shatt-el-Arab", "Sunset in the Gulf"). There are also further portraits of street sellers and other local people (dervish, snake charmer, barber). The booklet closes with a view of the "Pumping Station, Tembi" which served the Abadan refinery, "The road up to the oil fields", and a view of the Ctesiphon Arch. An uncommon and nicely produced view-book of the area. - Minor spotting to first leaf, creasing to upper wrapper but contents generally in good, clean condition.
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Weir, James.
[Turkey: Constantinople]. 3 watercolors. Constantinople, March 1806.
1) 260:340 mm. 2) 260:350 mm. 3) 260:360 mm. James Weir (d. 1820) was Captain of Marines on HMS Audacious from 1795 to 1800, and was also an accomplished watercolourist. His drawings show 1) "The Seraglio from the Marmora March 1806", 2) "The Seraglio at Constantinople from the harbour", and "7 towers Constantinople 19 March 1806".
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[Zrecin, J.].
Beschreibung der Kaiserstadt Constantinopel, ihrer Umgebungen, Sitten und Gebräuche. Nebst einem Anhang, die türkische Festungsstadt Schumla darstellend. Koblenz, Wilhelm Mainzer, 1829.
8vo. VI, 41, (1), 8 pp. With 4 folding lithographed maps and 3 plates (2 folding). 19th century half cloth. Second edition of this German description of Constantinople, its environs and local customs, expanded by two plates. "The author, Zrecin, is mentioned in the Mainz edition [...], but the wirk seems to have been edited by C. V. Sommerlatt whose name occurs at the end of the preface in this edition. An enlarged edition appeared at Coblenz in 1829" (Atabey). Contains a map and a view of Constantinople, a map of European Turkey, a view of the fortress of Shumen, one portrait of Sultan Mahmud II, a "copy of a Turkish firman", and a letterpress plate enumerating the "Muslim articles of faith". - Occasional slight foxing; with faint marginal waterstains to final leaves. Ownership stamp of Walter Seydel (1946) on verso of title page. Blackmer 1872; Atabey 1356 (note).
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Moser, Henri.
Sammlung Henri Moser-Charlottenfels: Orientalische Waffen und Rüstungen. Leipzig, Karl W. Hiersemann, 1912.
Imperial folio (520 x 415 mm). 17, (1) pp. With additional coloured title in Persian and 44 coloured plates. Original blue cloth portfolio with gilt-embossed floral and oriental decoration. Marbled endpapers. Very rare monograph about Henri Moser's collection of oriental arms and armour. The present copy in German is no. 103 of a small press run of 125 German copies (total number of copies: 300). The outstanding plates, printed in colour by the Vienna Court Printing Office, show extraordinary pieces of Moser's precious collection containing over 1,300 weapons. The Swiss merchant and art patron Henri Moser (1844-1923) left Schaffhausen at the age of 23 and began travelling through Asia. During his expeditions he collected many pieces of art, weapons, armour, and hunting trophies. His remarkable collection was displayed at various museums throughout Europe. - Cloth portfolio splitting at hinges. A few insignificant edge flaws; some staining, mainly confined to the text fascicule, otherwise in excellent condition.
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[Mulnier, Jules / Nadar, Félix.
Galerie Contemporaine, Littéraire, Artistique. Paris, Ludovic Baschet, 1876-ca. 1878].
Folio (288 x 351 mm). 192 pp., profusely illustrated throughout, with 48 full-page Woodburytype plates mounted within printed borders on sturdy cardboard, 24 mounted Woodburytype plates in the text, and 2 plates printed in red. Bound in sumptuous red morocco for Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt, elaborately giltstamped on spine and both covers. Leading edges gilt, inner dentelle gilt, marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. A striking collection of 72 woodburytype portraits of great artists and reproductions of their art, with accompanying biographical sketches, issued in undated instalments, then bound for and dedicated to Ismail Pasha, Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 to 1879. The portraits include famous authors and officers such as Victor Hugo, Thiers, Georges Sand, Sarah Bernhardt, Alexander Dumas fils, Gounod, Daudet, Erckmann-Chatrian, Mac-Mahon, Coppée, Jules Janin, Velpeau etc. - but also Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer whose Suez Canal was constructed and opened under Ismail's khedivate. The photographs are by Mulnier, Nadar, Carjat, Petit, and others, and printed by Goupil. The woodburytype is a photomechanical process capable of reproducing the continuous tones of photography with pigmented gelatin molded to a varying thickness. The speed and economy of woodburytypes, as well as their permanence (unlike traditional photographic processes that were subject to fading), made them a highly practical substitute for albumen silver prints in book publication or other situations where mass production was desirable. - Occasional slight foxing, but very well preserved altogether. The upper cover of the luxuriant red morocco binding bears the dedication: "A Son Altesse Ismaïl Pacha Khédive d'Égypte". Sharing the ambitious outlook of his grandfather, Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ismail greatly modernized Egypt and Sudan during his reign, investing heavily in industrial and economic development, urbanisation, and the expansion of the country's boundaries in Africa. OCLC 17984963. Cf. Lucien Goldschmidt and Weston J. Naef, The Truthful Lens (1980).
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Forray, Iván / Heicke, Joseph.
Mekkai kalmár [Mecca tradesman]. Vienna, Reiffenstein & Bösch, [1850].
Hand-coloured lithograph (502 x 370 mm), some parts varnished with albumin, matted (620 x 478 mm). Colour lithograph by Joseph Heicke, showing a Hejaz merchant, based on a drawing by the Hungarian artist and traveller Iván Forray. - Some light duststaining and waterstaining.
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Kriehuber, Jos[eph].
Mahmoud II, Türkischer Kaiser. Vienna, Mathias Artaria (J. Häussle, L. Letronne), 1828.
Lithographic portrait (555 x 380 mm), matted (618 x 499 mm). Portrait of Mahmud II (1785-1839), the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. A fine likeness by the celebrated Viennese portraitist Joseph Kriehuber. - Some foxing.
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Peeters, J[acob].
Mahomet de IIII. Tegenwoordige Keyser der Turkhe Rijken en Landen. Antwerp, [1686].
Engraving (230 x 160 mm), matted (360 x 280 mm). Portrait of Sultan Mehmet IV (1642-93), the second longest reigning sultan in Ottoman history, pictured on horseback. From Peeters's series "Korte Beschryvinghe, Ende Aen-Wysinghe der Plaetsen in dessn Boeck, met hunnen teghenwoordigen Standt, pertinentelijck uytghebeldt, in Oostenryck" (1686).
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(Chiarello, Giambattista).
Historia degl' avenimenti dell' armi imperiali contro a' ribelli, et ottomani, confederationi, e trattati seguiti frà le potenze di Cesare, Polonia, Venetia, e Moscovia. Venice, Steffano Curti, 1687.
4to. (24), 575 (but: 577), (13) pp. With engr. title vignette, 6 folding engr. plates and folding engr. map. Contemp. Italian half vellum with giltstamped red spine label. All edges red. First edition of this rare chronicle of the Turkish wars of 1683-86, being an account of the imperial offensive against the Turks and their allies following the unsuccessful Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 which led to the reconquest of Hungary and the capture of Buda in 1686. Includes an extensive account of the siege of Vienna, a fine map of Hungary, and plans of Vienna, Esztergom, Nové Zámky, Košice, Buda, and the bridge of Osijek. The second edition appeared in 1688 at the same press. - Some browning and brownstaining due to paper; occasional underlinings in red pencil. A very good copy. BM-STC Italian 225. Apponyi 1304. Kelényi 1162. Sturminger 966 & 3839. Not in Atabey.
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[Alf layla wa-layla - Dutch].
Duizend en een Nacht. Arabische vertellingen. Utrecht, C. van der Post jr., 1848-1850.
Large 4to. 3 vols. (4), VIII, 602, (2) pp. (4), 598, (2) pp. (4), 634, (2) pp. Contemporary half leather with marbled covers and giltstamped spines. Illustrated throughout with nearly 2000 wood-engravings. A finely illustrated Dutch edition by the bookseller, publisher and writer Hendrik Frijlink (1800-86), first issued in 1829. - Slight browning and foxing, but well preserved. Chauvin IV, p. 65, no. 168 ("1847-1849"). Burton VIII, 238. OCLC 63831066.
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[Allais, Denis Vairasse d' / Skinner, Thomas].
Geographisches Kleinod, aus zweyen sehr ungemeinen Edelgesteinen bestehend [...]. [Sultzbach], Abraham Lichtenthaler, 1689.
4to. (2), 362 pp. (but: 360 pp.; p. 176f. omitted); 100 pp. (complete). With engraved frontispiece (margins trimmed) and 16 engraved plates. Contemporary full vellum with ms. spine title. Leaves Bb2-4 and Cc1-2 supplied from another copy. The first German edition of Vairasse's "Histoire des Sevarambes" ("History of the Sevarambians"), translated from the French 1677-79 edition. This is an account of an imaginary journey to Australia, a utopian history in the style of Thomas Moore. Presented in the manner of the then-current geographical and anthropological works, the book provides a direct criticism of revealed and imposed religions, in particular of 17th century Catholicism. Remarkably, this edition also includes the first German publication of Thomas Skinner's slavery narrative entitled "The adventures of an English merchant, taken prisoner by the Turks of Algiers, and carried into the inland countries of Africa" ("Die Selsamen Begebenheiten Herrn T. S. Eines Englischen Kauff-Herrens, Welcher von den Algierischen See-Räubern zum Sclaven gemacht, und in das inwendige Land von Africa geführet worden"). - Lower margin of title torn with some loss, final two leaves torn and frayed without loss of text. Minor foxing to the plates; binding worn, edges somewhat defective. From the library of Swedish antiquarian bookdealer Björn Löwendahl (1941-2013). VD 17, 39:131551R. Holzmann/Bohatta II, 12150.
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[Arabian Nights]. Burton, Richard Francis.
A plain and literal translation of the Arabian Nights' entertainments, now entituled the book of the Thousand Nights and a Night. (Including: Supplemental nights). [London?], Richard Burton Club, [c. 1910].
17 vols. Royal 8vo (24 x 16 cm). With numerous illustrations (including the series by Albert Letchford), repeated on laid paper; the 17 frontispieces repeated in colour. Contemporary three quarter olive green morocco, gold-tooled spine, tops gilt. A handsome edition of Burton's "Arabian Nights", finely illustrated and printed in a limited edition of 100 hand-numbered copies. Bold to a fault, Richard Burton travelled to Mecca, explored the African Great Lakes, shocked his readers with his candid travel accounts, and gained fame and riches with his translation of the Arabian Nights. The first edition was published in 1885-88 and re-issued by the Burton Club shortly thereafter. The present edition is a reprint of the first Burton Club edition, illustrated with, among others, Albert Letchford's famous plates. - Spines slightly faded. Fine set, uncut and partly unopened. Cf. Howgego III, B98 (p. 146, first ed. 1885-88).
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[Bahrain - Falconry].
Original press photo (vintage). Bahrein, 1973.
294 x 203 mm. Captioned on the reverse: "Royal Falcons. Falcons belonging to the Amir of Bahrein perch on royal falconers' wrists at a racetrack near Rifaa al Gharbi. Between races pigeons and doves are released for the falcons to hunt down in a swift and violent chase over the heads of the crowd." - Slight wrinkling to edges, but well preserved.
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Barros, João de.
Decada primeira (-segunda) da Asia. Lisbon, Jorge Rodriguez for Antonio Gonsalvez, 1628.
Large 4to. 2 vols. (7), 208 ff. (5), 238 ff. Title vignettes (royal arms of Portugal). Uniform mottled calf with giltstamped red and green spine labels. All edges yellow. Second edition of the first two of the three "Decades" on Portugal's Middle Eastern enterprises (a fourth volume was produced posthumously in 1615, and the set was continued by other hands). "This is considered by Du Fresnoy as being a good edition" (Clarke, The Progress of Maritime Discovery, p. 132). The writer de Barros (1496-1570), head agent for the Portuguese overseas trade authority "Casa da Índia", managed to persuade King João III to commission from him a history of the Portuguese in India (including Asia and southeast Africa). The result, published between 1552 and 1563, earned him renown as one of the first great Portuguese historians, and the the title of a "Portuguese Livy". The 'Decades' contain "the early history of the Portuguese in India and Asia and reveal careful study of Eastern historians and geographers, as well as of the records of his own country. They are distinguished by clearness of exposition and orderly arrangement. They are also lively accounts" (Enc. Britannica). Books 2 and 3 of the "Decada Segunda" (fols. 21 ff.) offer a detailed narrative of Afonso de Albuquerque's expedition to the Arabian Gulf and his conquest of Ormuz in 1507; the island remained under Portuese occupation from 1515 to 1622. As vassals of the Portuguese state, the Kingdom of Ormuz jointly participated in the 1521 invasion of Bahrain that ended Jabrid rule of the Arabian archipelago. - Slight waterstaining throughout first volume; old handwritten ownership "Jose Joares E Britto" to title pages, with earlier ink ownerships obliterated (ink corrosion to title of vol. 2 and final leaf of vol. 1). A good set. Palau I.181b. Howgego I, B34, p. 91. Arouca B 56f. Löwendahl, Sino-Western Cultural Relations I, p. 42, no. 75. OCLC 4507939. Cf. Macro 474.
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[Bonnart, Henri & La Chapelle, Georges de la].
Marchand arabe. [Paris, 1750].
290 x 210 mm. Hand-coloured lithograph. Matted. Plate from "Recuel [!] de divers portraits des principales dames de la Porte du Grand Turc. Tirée au naturel sur les lieux". "Pour bien vendre sa marchandise / Il est adroit il est rusé / Fait argent de vielle chemise / Et rend neuf un habit usé".
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Burns, John James Douglas, Scottish naval surgeon (1815-1894).
[Naval logbook and diary]. Memorandum book. Mainly Eastern Mediterranean, but including South America, the Caribbean, London and other places, chiefly 1835/1836 to 1838, with a few later entries to 1844.
Small 8vo (100 x 155 mm). English manuscript on paper. 80 pp. (five days to a page, hand-ruled on blank sheets), with 8 pp. of printed matter ("a list of stamps, London bankers, interest tables, and other useful commercial information") bound first. Signed on the flyleaf (dated 1835) and on the title page. Original 1830s green roan. A remarkable naval logbook and diary kept by the young naval surgeon John Burns, documenting the voyages of four Royal Navy vessels, the H.M.S. "Harrier", the "North Star", the "Carysfort" and the "Sappho", to Ottoman ports throughout the Eastern Mediterranean during the final years of the reign of William IV and the early reign of Queen Victoria. Burns's ships frequently called at Constantinople, Pera and Tarabya, but also anchored at Tunis and Algier, as well as Alexandria (on Christmas Day 1840). Several of his brief entries tell of encounters and relations with local governors and dignitaries: "[3 Aug. 1837] Received the Persian Ambassador on board"; [8 Aug. 1837] Received French Ambassador on board"; "[14 April 1838] On board. Turkish frigate and brig arrived with the Pasha of Tunis". When passing the castles on the Dardanelles on 18 Nov. 1837, the ship "fired 19 guns", and upon entering Constantinople on 7 June 1837, the vessel pays its respects to Sultan Mahmud II: "Sailed from Therapia to Constantinople, manned yards and fired a Royal salute on passing the Sultans' Palace [...]". Upon their return to Tarabya a few months later, Burns remarks on the celebration of the Sultan's birthday: "[11 Dec. 1837] Sultans Birthday, lett [?] off rockets in the evening". When news of the Sultan's death reaches the ship less than two years later, Burns notes: "[29 June 1839] Uncertain reports of the death of the Sultan", and "[2 July 1839] Reports confirmed of Sultan Mahmouds death aged 69 reighned [!] 31 years." Burns also provides accounts of several military events, mentioning an "Insurrection at Pera, lying off it" on 10 August 1837, or the Battle of Nezib on 24 June 1839. Burns's training as a surgeon is called upon: "[11 Dec. 1836] Captain came on board, mastered, in the evening corporal of Marines broke both bones of leg immediately above ankle". Not always is Burns able to apply his medical skills with success: "[19 Dec. 1836] man killed by falling from the Mainmast head through lubber hole into the Basin"; "[18 Mar. 1837] Cook died of disease of chest". Yet the diary also gives evidence of many less sensational episodes of everyday life aboard ship, containing remarks about dinner, lesser illnesses, and weather conditions. Other entries cover leisure activities such as walks ashore ("[21 July 1837] On shore of Sultan's Valley, had a Turkish bath"; [5 Dec. 1837] Went to Stamboul Bazaars, Galata, Pera") and visiting such sights as coastal castles or the ruins of Pompeii. Burns's allegiance to the British crown is always evident: "[14 July 1837] Fired 72 minute guns in the afternoon on the news of the death of the King which happ. on the 19th June", "[28 June 1838] Entered Toulon and celebrated the Queen's coronation", and "[15 July 1837] fired a royal salute in honour of the accession of Queen Victoria". - Burns joined the H.M.S. "North Star" on 1 Sep. 1836, sailing from Rio de Janeiro to England. Other voyages took the keeper of this diary further into the western Mediterranean, including the ports of Naples, Malta, and Barcelona. - Later notes and calculations on the final leaves and the insides of the covers; newspaper clippings on the lower paste-down announce the death of Burns's infant son in 1859 as well as the birth of his daughter in 1857 and of another son in 1860. A newspaper clipping announcing Burns's passing on March 10 [1894] is pasted on the flyleaf. Upper cover creased, occasional very minor paper flaws to edges, but in all a charming survival.
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Couto, Diego de.
Decadas da Asia. Lisbon, Domingos Gonsalves, 1736.
Small folio (222 x 302 mm). 3 volumes bound as two. (32), 605, (1) pp. (14), 607-931, (1), 75, (1) pp. (16), 625, (1) pp. All 3 title-pages printed in red and black. Contemporary full mottled brown calf with giltstamped red labels to finely gilt spines (not uniform). Edges sprinkled red. Continuation of João de Barros's famous work on Portuguese colonial history in the Orient. First published in 1602, this is the first edition to include decade IX. Do Couto (1542-1616), chronicler and custodian of Torre do Tombo, begins with Decada IV, in continuation of de Barros's Decada III. (When de Barros's own Decada IV was discovered and posthumously published in 1615, the work effectively acquired another treatment of the same period with a different text, both numbered IV). "The 'Decades' contain "the early history of the Portuguese in India and Asia and reveal careful study of Eastern historians and geographers, as well as of the records of [the author's] own country. They are distinguished by clearness of exposition and orderly arrangement. They are also lively accounts" (Enc. Britannica). - Vols. I and II bound in a single volume. Some worming to spine-ends, with traces of worming to inner margin of the final four leaves of vol. III. A clean copy. Innocencio II, 154. Monteverde 1900. Cordier, BJ, 34 and BS, 2309. Cf. Macro 763. Not in Samodães or Ameal.
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[Egypt - Coptic Rite].
Sacra Congregatio Eminentissimorum ac RR. DD. S. R. E. Cardinalium negotiis propagandae fidei praepositorum. Rome, typis Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, 1830.
8vo. 37, (1) pp., final blank leaf. Sewn without binding. Extremely rare publication of the rules of the Coptic Catholic Church, decreed in 1790 and printed in Latin and Arabic in Rome in 1830, following the Ottomans' permission that the Coptic Catholics of Egypt build their own churches: "In conventu habito die 15 Martii anni 1790 decrevit, infrascriptas regulas ab omnibus RR. Sacerdotibus tam saecularibus, quam regularibus ritus Coptici, vel in urbe Cayri, vel in superiori Aegypto commorantibus, esse observandas". - Paper flaws to second leaf, with minor loss to a few letters. No other copy could be traced in libraries internationally.
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Giorgi, Federico.
Libro [...] del modo di conoscere i buoni falconi, astori, e sparavieri, di farli, di governarli, & medicarli [...]. Milano, Filippo Ghisolfi, 1645.
12mo. 136, (8) pp. With woodcut title vignette and 10 woodcuts in the text. - (Bound with) II: Carcano, Francesco. Dell'arte del strucciero con il modo di conoscere, e medicare falconi, astori, et sparavieri, e tutti gli uccelli di rapina. Ibid., 1645. 82, (2) pp. With woodcut title vignette and 7 woodcuts in the text (2 full-page). - (Bound with) III: Manzini, Romano. Ammaestramenti per allevare, pascere, & curare gli uccelli. Ibid., 1645. 58, (2) pp. With woodcut title vignette and 8 woodcuts in the text. Contemporary vellum with ms. title to spine. Fine sammelband containing three classic Italian works on hawking, falconry, and the care of birds in their final edition. I: "Well-known book" (Schwerdt), first published in 1547. The English author Turberville drew heavily on this work for his famous "Booke of Faulconrie or Hauking". - II: "A small book on hawking, by a practical falconer" (Schwerdt). - III: The third edition of a book "on bird catching and the care of birds. The first edition was published at Milan by Pacifico Pontio in 1575 and must be rare" (Schwerdt). "This little book relates solely to cage-birds [...] It is usually bound up with the books on Falconry by Francesco Carcano and Federico Giorgi, and might be supposed to relate to that subject" (Harting). - Bookplate of Hans Dedi von front pastedown. A good copy of this collection of rare works in a contemporary binding, in excellent state of preservation. I: Souhart 217. Harting 144. Cf. Schwerdt I, 207. - II: Schwerdt I, 94. Harting 142f. Souhart 86. - III: Schwerdt II, 7. Souhart 315. Harting 147.
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Gurmendi, Francisco de (transl.).
Doctrina phisica y moral de principes. [...] Traduzido de Arabico en Castellano. Madrid, Andres de Parra & Gaspar Garcia, 1615.
8vo. (8), 164 [recte: 160], (4) ff. Early 20th century half vellum with giltstamped red spine label and marbled blue boards. Edges sprinkled in red. First and only edition (not reprinted until 2004) of this rare and little-received example of the "education of princes" genre, translated into Spanish from an unknown Arabic source. "Francisco de Gurmendi learned Arabic in Madrid at the school of Marcos Dobelo, a Syrian who worked for a time as a translator of the 'plomos'. Gurmendi eventually achieved enough facility with the language to publish 'Doctrina phisica y moral de principes' (Madrid, 1615), a translation of an Arabic text" (A. K. Harris, From Muslim to Christian Granada [Baltimore 2007], p. 170). Recently, the work was the subject of a 2016 doctoral thesis at the University of Alicante: M. I. Llopis Mena, "Teoría política árabe y persa en la corte de Felipe III: la Doctrina Phísica y Moral de Príncipes de Francisco de Gurmendi". - Slight browning; paper flaws to title page (no loss to text). Exceedingly rare; not a single copy in auction records. Palau III, 433. OCLC 804490168.
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[Java]. Radermacher, Jacob Cornelis Matthaeus.
Naamlyst der planten, die gevondenworden op het eiland Java. Met de beshryving van eenige nieuwe geslagten en soorten, [...] I-III. Batavia, Egbert Heemen (vols. 1-2) and Pieter van Geemen (vol. 3), 1780-1782.
7 parts in 3 volumes, bound as 1. 4to. 60; 67, [1 blank], 88, 40; [4], 84 (lacking pp. 85-102), 42, [2], 70 pp. Lacking pp. 85-102 in vol. 3. Contemporary stiff paper wrappers covered with paste-paper (calico pattern), with blank paper title-label on front. Rare first and only edition of a catalogue of the plants found on the island of Java, Indonesia. The work was published in three volumes, the first containing descriptions of plants not recorded by Rumphius and Houttuyn and the second and third listing all the plant names in Latin, Dutch and Malay/Javanese, with reference to Linnaeus, the Malay/Javanese set in roman type. The volumes were printed at the presses of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Batavia on the island of Java (now Jakarta, Indonesia). - Jacobus Cornelis Matthieu de Radermacher (1741-1783), started as a Dutch merchant in service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and rapidly rose in position in the company. By 1781 Radermacher was named Commissioner for the Fleet and the Army, and Common Council of India. He was one of the founding members of Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen and a proponent of the establishment of the botanical gardens of Buitenzorg. In 1783 he left for Holland because of his health, but was murdered during a mutiny on his way home. - With a tiny tear in the second leaf and a couple of minor spots, otherwise in very good condition and only slightly trimmed, but lacking pp. 85-102 of volume three. Leaves E1-E2 of the same volume are included twice. The spine of the wrappers is tattered and its foot completely gone. Landwehr & V.d. Krogt, VOC 615. Pritzel 7392. Stafleu & Cowan 8501 (2 copies, both incomplete). STCN (2 copies). WorldCat (3 copies). not in Hunt. Johnston. for the author: NNBW II, cols. 1153-1154.
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[Knorr, Georg Wolfgang / Leinberger, Christian and Hoffer, Andreas].
Ein Trampelthier oder Dromedar [...]. Plate K. VI. [Nürnberg], 1767.
240 x 340 mm. Coloured print. Matted. Plate K VI from Knorr's "Deliciae naturae selectae oder auserlesenes Naturalien-Cabinet welches aus den drey Reichen der Natur zeiget, was von curiösen Liebhabern aufbehalten und gesammlet zu werden verdienet [...]". Begun by Knorr as early as 1751, it was continued by his heirs after his death in 1761. The book describes items from the great contemporary natural history collections. Cf. Nissen, ZBI 2227. Horn/Schenkling 12038. Hagen I, 426. Dean I, 696. Graesse IV, 35.
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Kuntz, Rudolf.
Abbildungen saemmtlicher Pferde-Racen, nach dem Leben gezeichnet, lithographirt und herausgegeben von Rudolph Kuntz mit naturhistorischer Beschreibung von E. d'Alton. 1. bis 4. Lieferung [= all published]. Stuttgart, Georg Ebner'sche Kunsthandlung, [1827-1832].
Oblong royal folio (536 x 445 mm). Engraved title-page, engraved dedication to Ludwig Wilhelm August, Grand Duke of Baden, (4), XX pp. of letterpress text, 25 plates (= 24 lithogr. plates of horse portraits and 1 anatomical plate). Contemporary half calf with handwritten cover label; publisher's original illustrated lithogr. wrappers bound within. First edition, self-published by the author in Karlsruhe, with Ebner's Stuttgart address pasted on the wrapper's upper cover. All that was published of this splendid and rare work about the principal breeds of horses, issued in what must have been a very small press run by Kuntz (1797-1848), Painter to the Court of Karlsruhe, Baden, who is also known for drawing the full-blooded Arabian horses of the Royal Württemberg Stud, the first Arabian stud in Europe. For the present work Kuntz made extensive travels in Hungary, London and Paris to draw his exquisite portraits of Arabian, Persian, Egyptian, Nubian, English and many other thoroughbred horses from life. - Binding professionally repaired at the edges. Interior somewhat foxed and fingerstained. From the officers' library of the Württembergian Uhlan (light cavalry) regiment no. 19. Nissen, ZBI 2328. Thieme/Becker XXII, 116. Wells 4313. Graesse I, 87.
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Lawrence, T[homas] E[dward], British explorer, intelligence officer, and writer (1888-1935).
Autograph letter signed ("TE Shaw"). Southampton, 18. VII. 1934.
8vo. 2 pp. and 2 lines on bifolium. "Dear Lady Young I wonder if you (and His Ex.) are still there? Your letter to me sat at 2 Smith Square (Sir H. B. not knowing my whereabouts) till last night, when I called and collected it. I am sorry. Most of my addresses are like that. Would you be so good as to register / T. E. Shaw / Clouds Hill / Moreton / Dorset / as my likeliest spot, in future? It represents my cottage on the heath, which will be home after March when the RAF bring themselves, not reluctantly, to dispense with my help? I'm sorry not to have seen you. I wanted, while you were yet in Nyasa-land, to beg of His Ex. The rectangular skin of a small (1 sq. yard) lion, for my hearth-rug. But Ronald Storrs whom I saw at Southampton about a month ago told me you had been promoted to his province, and that there were no lions. Ronald was physically a very sick man. Mentally he was fighting hard to keep brisk… too hard for his health, I fear. The wreck of an old companion is too near a sight for sorrow, even. I hope Africa suits, after your trial of Asia and Europe. My respects to the Governor! Tell him I saw the fraudulent Abdulla, the other day. Exactly as he was, body & mind. Now, that's the way. / Yours sincerely TE Shaw / A poor letter: but I picture you again in Africa, and my squib spluttering in the void". - Between 1916 to 1918, Abdullah I of Jordan worked with the British guerrilla leader T. E. Lawrence (with whom he had actually never jarred), and played a key role as architect and planner of the Great Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule, leading guerrilla raids on garrisons. From 1921 until his assassination in 1951, Abdullah ruled Jordan, first as Emir under a British Mandate from 1921 to 1946, then as King of an independent nation from 1946 onwards.
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Lütfi Pasha / Tschudi, Rudolf (ed.).
[Asafname - German]. Das Asafnâme des Lutfi Pascha, nach den Handschriften zu Wien, Dresden und Konstantinopel [...]. Berlin, Mayer & Müller, 1910.
8vo. XXI, (1), 38 pp., 1 blank f., (2), 45, (1) pp. With a portrait frontispiece. Contemporary half calf with marbled covers and giltstamped red spine label. All edges red. Edition of the Turkish text (with the first German translation) of the "Asafname", a mirror for ministers written by the Albanian-born Ottoman statesman Lütfi Pasa (1488-1564), grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent. The translation, forming the dissertation of Rudolf Tschudi, was issued as vol. 12 of the "Türkische Bibliothek" edited by Georg Jacob, Professor at Erlangen. - An attractively bound copy with the bookplate of the collector Franz Pollack von Parnau (1903-81), who assembled a famous library in the Viennese palais of his father, the textile magnate Bruno Pollack von Parnau.
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[Ottoman Empire - Northern Territories].
Memalik-i Osmaniyye'nin Aktâr-i Simaliyesi Haritasi. Üsküdar (Istanbul), Mühendishane Matbaasi, [ca 1803].
Engraved map in outline colour, 119 x 53.4 cm. Backed with cloth. One of the earliest monuments of Islamic cartography, of outstanding rarity: published at roughly the same time as the famous "Cedid Atlas", also by the Imperial Engineering School in Scutari (Istanbul), this large-scale engraved wall map shows the "Northern Territories of the Ottoman Empire". This hitherto practically unknown map is clearly to be viewed in connection with the atlas which has long been considered the first and most important achievement of modern Muslim cartography. Like the Cedid Atlas, this outstanding publishing venture was commissioned under the authority of Sultan Sultan Selim III. A pioneering attempt at mapping a substantial part of the far-flung Empire, the map reaches from southern Italy and the Balkans to the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. The most detailed map of the Empire's Northern Territories available at the time and one of the first wall maps printed in Constantinople. - Occasional unobtrusive professional repairs, well preserved altogether. Esat Efendi no. 2049. Özdemir, Ottoman Cartography, p. 190f. (illustrated).
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Pasi, Bartolomeo di.
Tariffa de i pesi, e misure corrispondenti dal Levante al Ponente: e da una terra, e luogo allaltro, quasi p tutte le parti dil mondo: con la dichiaratione, e notificatione di tutte le robbe: che si tragono di uno paese per laltro con la sua tavola copiosissima, e facilissima a trovare ogni cosa per ordine. Venice, (Pietro di Nicolini da Sabbio), 1540.
8vo. (12), 200 ff. Title with architectural woodcut border. 17th century vellum with ms. title to spine. An early merchants' guide to the measurements of the Mediterranean and Near East, this pocketbook for sixteenth-century Italian traders is one of the foremost sources for the study of the metrologies of Venice and her trading partners in the early sixteenth century. It enabled conversion between Venetian currency, weights and measures and units of other Italian city-states, European neighbours and more exotic locations in the Levant, North Africa, the Near and Middle East, including Constantinople, Aleppo, Tripoli, Damascus, Cyprus, Corfu, Rhodes, and Crete. Pasi's manual is invaluable as a record of the panoply of commodities traded in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the sixteenth century, including pearls, silks, wool, saffron, chestnuts, figs, galangal, vegetable oils, gold and silver. On fols. 3, 11, and 12, Pasi recorded the tariffs on pearls in Damascus, Aleppo, Cairo, Alexandria, Constantinople and Venice. It is very likely that the famous merchant Balbi carried a copy of this classic with him on his travels. First printed in Venice in 1503, and again in 1521, this 1540 edition appears to be the third and was followed by another in 1557. -- Some brownstaining to preliminary matter; a few contemporary ink marginalia slightly trimmed in the course of the 17th-century rebinding. On the whole an excellent clean copy. Very rare: the only copy of any edition to surface at auction within the last thirty years appears to be the Honeyman copy of the 1503 edition. Kress 51. Adams P 374. Smith, Rara Arithmetica, 79. Cf. Goldsmiths' 7 (1503 edition). R. A. Donkin, Beyond price. Pearls and pearl fishing: origins to the age of discoveries (Philadelphia, 1998), p. 138.
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Rivière, Henri / Migeon, Gaston.
La céramique dans l'art musulman. Paris, Émile Lévy, 1913.
Imperial folio (405 x 474 mm). 2 vols. (10), 12, (2) pp. With 10 colour illustrations in the the text and 100 full-page coloured illustrations mounted on plates. Sumptuous dark brown contemporary full calf, gilt, covers lined in silk, with silk endpapers. First edition of this monumental publication on Islamic pottery, no. 107 of 200 copies printed. All ceramics pictured within the two volumes are described in detail with place and date of origin as well as the current owner (mostly French noble or institutional collections). Includes a bibliography on the subject and list of plates. - Union Club bookplate. Contemporary bindings somewhat rubbed; hinges professionally repaired, otherwise a fine copy, clean throughout. Rare. Not in Arntzen/Rainwater.
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Rudolf, Archduke of Austria and Hungary.
Voyage en Orient. Traduit de l'Allemand. Illustrations d'après les dessins originaux de Franz von Pausinger. Vienna, Imprimerie Imperiale et Royale de la Cour et de l'État, 1885.
Folio. (8), 168, (2) pp. With 37 etched plates. Contemporary full calf with richly gilt front cover, label to spine, and gilt edges. First (and only) edition in French. - Archduke Rudolf set out on his tour of the Middle East in 1881, travelling first from Vienna to Miramar, Corfu, Alexandria, and Cairo. From there the group sailed up the Nile to Aswan and Memphis, then journeyed on to Port Said, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Holy Land, returning to Vienna from Haifa via Cattaro (Kotor), Ragusa (Dubrovnik), and Trieste. This is an outstanding and unique copy in a sumptous Viennese binding, in immaculate condition, was created for Anton Ritter von Beck (1812-95), then director of the government's Imperial printing office in Vienna. With a long inscription by the translator, the Baron de Montandin, to "Monsieur le Hof Rath Anton Chevalier Von Beck" on the flyleaf, dated Vienna, 28 February 1885. Some slight staining to the guards of the etchings, otherwise a very clean copy. Hamann, Habsburger-Lexikon 415 ff. ÖBL IX, 315 ff. Wurzbach VII, 145 ff.
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[Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch - Synod of Mount Lebanon].
Ristretto delle Relazioni de Relatori del Sinodo del Monte Libano, et unione di esse fatto dal Cardinal Prefetto, e Ponente destinato da Nostro Signore in luogo del Sig. Cardinal Rezzonico assente per minor incomodo degl'Em'i Votanti. No place or date, but probably Rome, 1736 or soon after.
Small folio (ca. 192 x 262 mm). (Title leaf), 21, (1) pp., (final blank leaf). Italian manuscript on paper. A contemporary account of the 1736 Maronite Synod of Mount Lebanon, which laid the foundations for the modern Maronite Church. Concerns the appointment of Giuseppe Simone Assemani (Yusuf ibn Siman as-Simani) as Apostolic Delegate, who presided over the Synod, and the settlements of several sensitive issues of Maronite Church, such as liturgy, martyrology, sacraments, marriage, and the authority of the Patriarch. - On loose folded leaves, pages numbered. Well preserved.
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Ujfalvy, Charles Eugene de.
Atlas anthropologique des peuples du Ferghanah. Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1879.
4to (174 x 260 mm). 16 pp. Includes 34 (of 70) loose albumen photographs, images approximately 130 x 100 mm each, mounted separately and numbered, housed in a modern album. Text volume in original paper wrappers. Rare anthropological publication, with original photographic documentation, of the inhabitants of the Fergana region in the extreme east of Uzbekistan, near Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. - Born in Transylvania, Károly Jenö (Charles Eugene) Ujfalvy de Mezokövesd (1842-1904) was a noted Austro-Hungarian ethographic researcher and linguist of Central Asia and the Himalayas. He settled in France, where he was trained by the noted anthropologist Paul Broca, and taught Asian history and geography at the School of Oriental Languages. The Ministry of Education sent him on a mission to Russia, Siberia, Turkestan and Uzbekistan in 1876, on which journeys he recorded these images of locals in the region. (Ujfalvy would also travel to Samarkand and Bokhara and lead an expedition to the Kashmir in 1880.) This is the fourth of a total of six volumes concerning the French expedition to Central Asia. In his preface, Ujfalvy develops the aims of his enterprise and outlines the principles by which one may obtain anthropologically useful portraits: subjects are to be photographed in the nude, from the front and in profile, against a white background and using a light metre. The individuals, whose portraits measure exactly one-eighth of their natural size, are identified by name, race, sex, height, and age, as well as by the colour of the skin, the hair, and the eyes. The photographs were realised with the aid of one photographer "Kazlowski, le plus habile de Tachkend"; the present album likely constitutes his only published work. - Text volume chipped at edges with some repairs, otherwise good; photos well preserved. OCLC 698467635.
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(Ulloa, Alfonso de).
La historia dell'impresa di Tripoli di Barberia, fatta per ordine del Sereniss. Re Catolico, l'anno M.D.LX. Con le cose avenute a Christiani nell'Isola delle Zerbe. Nuovamente mandata in luce. Venice ("Venevia"), Francesco Rampazetto, 1566.
4to. (7) ff., 1 blank f., 88, (4) ff. With woodcut printer's device to title page. 19th century vellum with giltstamped red spine labels. First dated publication of Ulloa's account of the siege of Tripolis in Italian. Includes the three-page dedication to Johann Jakob Fugger - the only place in the book where Ulloa's name appears. The author, a courtier of King Philip II, celebrates the defence of St Angelo's fortress on Malta, modern Libya. - In the 1551 Siege of Tripoli, the Ottoman fleet vanquished the Knights of Malta in Tripoli; the city was captured on 15 August by Sinan Pasha after six days of bombardment. The knights, many of them French, were returned to Malta upon the intervention of the French ambassador, and shipped onboard his galleys, while the mercenaries were enslaved. Murad Agha, the Ottoman commander of Tajura since 1536, was named as the Pashalik of the city. The siege was the first step in the all-out Italian War of 1551-59 in the European theatre. In 1553, Dragut was nominated commander of Tripoli by Suleiman, making the city a centre for piratical raids in the Mediterranean and the capital of the Ottoman province of Tripolitania. In a famous attack from Tripoli, in 1558, Dragut attacked Reggio and took all its inhabitants as slaves to Tripoli. In 1560, a powerful naval force was sent to recapture Tripoli, but that force was defeated in the Battle of Djerba, an event also described in Ulloa's book. The end of the volume is brought up by an interesting four-page account of Malta ("Descrittione dell'Isola di Malta") and a list of the names of Christian knights who died in the siege. - Occasional slight browning and brownstaining (more pronounced on title page); a few pages near end show insignificant edge flaws. Early 19th century ms. bibliographical note on flyleaf. A good copy. Edit 16, CNCE 37528. BM-STC Italian 704. Gay 1494. Palau 343.401. Göllner 1134. Graesse VI, 224. Olschki L II, 222. Cf. Mortimer 509 (with note on this edition). Not in Adams, Blackmer or Aboussouan. This edition not in Atabey.
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[Louis XIV].
Relation succinte de ce qui s'est passé en la rade de la ville d'Alger en Afrique, depuis l'arrivée du Sieur Marquis de Martel, Lieutnant Général des Armées Navales de Sa Majesté, avec l'escadre des vaisseaux qu'il commandoit. Paris, Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1670.
4to (198 x 247 mm). 8 pp. With armorial woodcut vignette on title, headpiece and initial. Unbound as issued. Rare official account of the French diplomatic expedition to Algiers undertaken in January 1666 by lieutenant general Damien Martel to re-establish the peace between Louis XIV and the Barbary Coast. - To protect the French merchant fleet from North African corsairs, but also inspired by the mercantilist theories of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who strove to expand French commercial capacities abroad, the King had in 1664 sent an expedition under the Duke of Beaufort to Djidjelli in north-eastern Algeria. There, the French had sunk several corsair ships, seized the city and begun expanding the port into a permanent naval base. Algerian pirate commandos, however, soon retook the city, destroyed the French works and sold the surviving Frenchmen into slavery. Indeed, the Djidjelli expedition had achieved nothing for France but to serve as a convenient excuse for the Ottomans to charge Louis XIV with having breached the peace. While the Porte declared that they would not hinder the French in pursuing the corsairs, it was made clear that the Sultan would not permit Louis to take possession of the coastal cities and ports of Barbary. The French did not attempt to re-establish themselves in Africa; rather, they sent punitive expeditions throughout the Mediterranean to rout whatever corsair ships they could find, thus finally driving the Pasha of Algiers to accept a new peace treaty. In early 1666, Martel was dispatched with a fleet of 17 ships (including three "brûlots", or fireships); the pamphlet discusses his self-assured entrance to Algiers and the subsequent delicate negotiations that renewed the diplomatic accord between two nations. - An uncommon work; we have located copies only at the Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève in Paris, the University of Oxford, British National Archives, and Bibliothèque Nationale, the latter two with title spelling 'Succincte'. Some duststaining, especially to the wide, untrimmed margins, but still a well-preserved copy. Playfair, Handbook for Travellers in Algeria and Tunis, pp. 44f. OCLC 57055024. Not in Playfair, Bibliography of Algeria: From the Expedition of Charles V in 1541 to 1887.
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[Muhammad].
Historie van den oorsprongh, geslacht, geboorte, opvoedinge, en leere des grooten valschen propheets Mahomets. Amsterdam, Broer Jansz, 1640.
4to. (6), 119, (1) pp. With separate engraved title and 9 engravings in the text. - (Bound with) II: Prophetien, of voorseggingen der beyde Keyseren Severi en Leonis, die beyde in Orienten geregeert hebben. Ibid., 1640. (4), 41, (3) pp. 19th century vellum with calligraphed title to spine; covers ruled in red. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Very rare, prettily illustrated biography of the Prophet Muhammad. Second edition, previously published in 1627 and based on de Bry's "Acta Mehmeti" from 1597. The engraved title page shows ten different scenes which enframe the worlds of the title. Nine of these are taken directly from de Bry and are repeated throughout the book, enlarged and with much greater detail; only the Ottoman army train at the top is likely based on a different source. The book also comprises the divinations of the Byzantine Emperors Leo and Severus about the fall of Constantinople. - An appealing and well-preserved copy from the library of the adventurer, linguist, diplomat, and collector Charles Schefer (1820-98) with his bookplate on the front pastedown. Schefer, who held a chair at the Ecole des Langues Orientales, was perhaps best known in his day as the most prominent Orientalist of his generation. I: Chauvin XI, 572. Theunissen, p. 39f. OCLC 65527830. II: Knuttel 3725. Waller 1389. OCLC 914266113.
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Yahya bin Abd al-Mu'ti az-Zawawi / Sjögreen, Erik.
Jahja bin 'Abd el-Mu'ti ez-Zawawi's Kitab el-Fusul. Kap. I-II. Akademisk afhandling [...]. Leipzig, Drugulin, 1899.
8vo. X, 36, (1 blank), 31, (1) pp. (And:) The same / Zetterstéen, Karl Vilhelm. Ur Jahja bin'Abd el-Mu'ti ez-Zawawi's dikt ed-Durra el-Alfije fi'ilm el-Arabije. Akademisk afhandling [...]. Ibid., 1895. XV, (1), 65, (1), 14 pp. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped spine title; marbled boards. The two principal grammars of Ibn Muti, his "Fusul hamsin" and, in verse, his "ad-Durra al-alfiya", edited by Swedish orientalists. Yahya bin Abd al-Mu'ti az-Zawawi "had already made a name for himself in his native Damascus als a writer and teacher when the Ayyubid Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil called him to Cairo. There he served as a teacher at the old mosque and died in 628/1231" (cf. GAL I, 303). - Binding insignificantly rubbed at extremeties; handwritten index and library stamp on front paste-down. Handwritten note on first title detailing place and time for the disputation. GAL S I, p. 531 & 530.
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Ali Effendi.
Specimen of Arabic calligraphy presented to Catherine Hutton, with added notes in her hand. [England, 1826-1829].
Single sheet of wove paper folded once to form two leaves (243 x 195 mm). Arabic calligraphy and English inscription on polished oriental paper, window-mounted vertically on first leaf, text in Hutton's hand written vertically on first leaf and continued horizontally on second. A specimen of Arabic calligraphy by an Egyptian Turk named Ali Effendi, inscribed in English in Effendi's hand "To Mrs Catherine Hutton", with the note "Madam when I am Ali Bey I shall be glad to see you in Egypt. I am yours [sic] sincere friend Ali Effendi". Catherine Hutton's accompanying notes, dated 1826 and 1829, state that Effendi "is a young, handsome, clever Egyptian-Turk, who had been sent to England by his beloved 'Grand Pasha' to learn our language, manners &c, and transport them to Cairo. His proficiency in writing English is seen in the following autograph, the English part of which he wrote for me". Hutton further notes that Effendi "was fond of the theatre, and spoke with rapture of the beautiful actresses. He looked upon English horsemanship with the utmost contempt. Stooping forward, and hanging down his head, he said 'Your men ride like this'. Then, rising to his accustomed height, he added, 'I throw my jereed on full gallop, and stop the moment when I should touch the wall'. Ali Effendi drank wine like an infidel". Hutton mentions three of Ali Effendi's companions: Mohamed Effendi, "who is studying naval architecture", Selim Aga, "who is studying mathematics and military engineering", and Omar Effendi, "who is qualifying himself for diplomacy". That all four men spent some years in England is confirmed by The Nautical Magazine for 1832, which adds that they were aged between 22 and 25 years of age and that they arrived in 1826. From an early age the novelist Catherine Hutton (1756-1846) was a keen letter-writer. "The Coltman family of Leicester and Mrs Andre of Enfield, Middlesex, were lifelong correspondents. She also wrote to her cousin the mathematician Charles Hutton (1737-1823), Sarah Harriet Burney (Fanny Burney's half-sister), the radical author Sir Richard Phillips, Eliza Cook, and, latterly, Edward Bulwer Lytton, and Charles Dickens. Her letters are full of anecdotes and shrewd observations on her acquaintances and are seasoned with a self-deprecating wit, their direct address and dry cheerfulness recalling the epistolary style of Jane Austen. Hutton delighted in Austen's novels, and believed that 'her character is either something like mine, or what I would wish mine to be'. In an account of her occupations written in July 1844, Catherine Hutton described some of the other activities which absorbed her: needlework, including 'patchwork beyond all calculation'; pastry and confectionery; collecting prints of costumes in eight large volumes; and collecting more than 2000 autographs. Bridget Hill rightly concludes that her life 'illustrates the particular problems of the educated, intelligent, single daughter of the middle class' in late 18th- and early 19th-century Britain' (Oxford DNB). - In very good condition.
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Allawerdi, Michael (Allah Wirdi, Miha'il Halil).
Falsafat al-musiqa al-Sharqiyah. The Philosophy of Oriental Music. Damascus, Ibn Zeydoun, [1949].
4to. (60), 608, (2), 40, (4) pp. With portrait frontispiece after preliminaries. Contemporary green cloth. - Includes: The same. Arabism and Peace. 8, (4), 8 pp. Ibid., 1951. Printed wrappers. - And: The same. Typescript "Unification of the Language of Music and its Relation to World Peace". 4to. 5 ff. with occasional handwritten corrections. - And: collection of publisher's promotional leaflets on "The Philosophy of Oriental Music" in French and English. First edition in Arabic, inscribed by the author to an unidentified member of the Swedish Nobel family: "Présenté par l'auteur à Mr. le Maître Gunar Nobel avec les meilleurs salutations [...] Damas 10.5.1952". The Syrian musicologist Allawerdi held that there were two basic forms of music: the oriental, natural one, based on the harmonic series, and the western, mechanical one, based on the tempered scale of 18th century instruments. While he associated the former with serenity and peace, he viewed the latter as artificial and complex, ultimately leading to restlessness, chaos, and war. Allawerdi strove to unify the "language of music" as a first step towards achieving world peace. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951. - A good copy, including several of the author's further writings on the subject, one as an original authorial typescript.
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Arri, Giovanni Antonio.
Novas observationes in quosdam numos Abbasidarum aliosque Cuficos sive editos sive anecdotos nec non in duo specula et generatim in vitra literis cuficis aucta. Turin, ex Regio Typographeo, 1835.
Large 4to. 55, (1) pp. With 3 engraved plates (one folding). Contemporary orange wrappers. First edition. - Rare numismatic treatise on Abbasid coins and their inscriptions in Kufic script. Separately pre-published from the "Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino", vol. 39 (1836). - Some duststaining; plates foxed, still a good, wide-margined copy. Not in Leitzmann.
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Balfour, [Isaac] Bayley.
The Island of Socotra and its Recent Revelations. (London, William Clowes & Sons for the) Royal Institution of Great Britain, 1883.
8vo. 19, (1) pp. Sewn. Separately paginated offprint from the Notices of the Proceedings at the Meetings of the Members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain: an account of the history, topography, ethnology and botany of the Island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea. The Scottish botanist Sir I. B. Balfour (1853-1922) was Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow from 1879 to 1885, Sherardian Professor of Botany at the University of Oxford from 1884 to 1888, and Professor of Botany at the University of Edinburgh from 1888 to 1922. - Well preserved.
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[Bronze doré].
A matching pair of an Arabian stallion and English racehorse. Paris, ca. 1830.
French bronze reliefs gilt, both preserved in their original frame. Each 43 x 39 x 4.5 cm. Showing two horses facing each other. Both bronze reliefs are very intricately detailed and mounted on a base of red velvet in two strictly contemporary frames of the French Empire period.
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[Buckingham, James Silk (ed.)].
The Oriental Herald, and Journal of General Literature. Vol XIII. April to June, 1827. London, for the editor, 1827.
8vo. (2), 210, (2), 211-422, (2), 423-664 pp. With a wood-engraved title vignette. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Brown marbled endpapers. A volume from James Buckingham's important journal which he founded in January 1824 under the significant title, "The Oriental Herald and Colonial Review", though the subtitle was renamed "Journal of General Literature" the following year. Several pieces are of direct relevance to the Arab world and the Gulf region: the transcript of a Debate at the East India House on the Bombay Marine (pp. 146ff.) variously discusses the "pirates in the Persian Gulph", the climate and various mishaps befalling ships there, while a review of the 1826 book "Sketches of Persia" (pp. 77ff.) gives an account of the "burning sandy plain which skirts the gulf". Johann Gottfried Eichhorn's "Historical Sketch of the Trade with India Before the Age of Mohamed" (pp. 437ff.) includes a discussion of Arabian and Gulf-region trade in the third century, and literature is represented in reviews of the Arabian tales "Abassah" (pp. 239ff.) and "Karmath" (pp. 557ff.). - "Except for 'The Asiatic Journal', the official publication of the East India Company, England had no paper devoted to colonial affairs. 'The duty of nations to enlighten and improve the condition of the people they subjugate,' he said in an introductory essay, 'can scarcely be required to be enforced by argument.' From this point of view he proposed to treat colonial problems in terms of colonial interests and at the same time to show the English people that conditions in the colonies were related to their own welfare" (R. E. Turner, James Silk Buckingham, 1786-1855: A Social Biography [1934], p. 226). - Binding rubbed; extremeties bumped; occasional wrinkles to pages. Armorial bookplate of Richard Archdall on pastedown. Stamps of the Caesarean Dramatic Literary Society of the Royal Hall, Jersey.
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[Camel Race].
"Minieh, Février 20, 1914". Photograph album of an important camel racing and horsemanship event. Minya, Upper Egypt, 1914.
Oblong folio (455 x 365 mm). 28 matte photographs (195 x 280 mm or the reverse), individually mounted on cards, recto only. Contemporary sewn red half morocco gilt, flat spine, upper cover titled in gilt and with the photographer's name in gilt. Marbled endpapers. Fine album of 28 black/white mounted photographs showing officials and dignitaries, horse and camel trainers, riders, and races at an unknown celebration or festival during the last days of the Khedivate and Ottoman rule in Egypt. A similar album, comprising merely 24 photographs, is kept at the UC Santa Barbara, Special Research Collections (Bernath Mss 185). - Several mounts loosened or detached. Binding worn at extremeties, some waterstaining to covers.
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Committee on Foreign Affairs.
New Perspectives on the Persian Gulf. Hearings before the subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia of the committee on foreign affairs, house of representatives, ninety-third congress, first session. June 6, July 17, 23, 24, and November 28, 1973. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973.
8vo (23.5 × 15 cm). VIII, [1], 227 pp. With a small map of the Arabian Gulf. Original printed paper wrappers. Document printed by the government of the United States of America, concerning several hearings of witnesses of events in the Middle East and South Asia, especially concerning "arms sales or pending arms deals with some of the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf, especially Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait" (p. 1). Included are a list of witnesses, their statements, tables listing military transactions and import/export numbers, and relating documents, including memorandums, biographies of the witnesses, letters and articles. Inserted is a letter from Eric Barnes to the Congressman Kazen, requesting a copy of the present book. A very good copy.
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[Egypt].
Photograph album. Egypt (and Australia), 1895.
Large folio (470 x 350 mm). A total of 52 albumen prints (36 from Egypt, signed Zangaki brothers, all 215 x 275 mm, and 16 from Australia, mostly signed Hitch & Co., 150 x 200 mm), all mounted on cardboard, each with handwritten identifying captions in French, German, and English. Dark brown morocco binding gilt on upper cover with golden corner fleurons and gilt title "Februar - April 1895" (signed in lower left corner: "C. Keuth, relieur, Anvers"). Moirée endpapers. All edges gilt. A charming and sumptuously bound album commemorating a journey through Egypt in the spring of 1895. The photos include four views of Suez and the Canal, numerous impressive scenes of Cairo, its streets and palaces, with panoramic views, the Mosques of Muhammad Ali and of Sultan Hassan, the Citadel, the Tombs of the Caliphs, the Tombs of the Mamelukes, the road to the pyramids (with locals posing), the Sphinx and an ascent of the Great Pyramid, the statue of Ramses II at Saqqara and the Pyramid of Djoser, the Obelisk at Heliopolis, Pompay's Columns at Alexandria, etc. - The additional photos of Australia, dated February 1895, all show views from the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, including landscapes of the "Three Sisters", Nellie's Glen, Bride's Veil, and Negalong Gate, and interiors of the Jenolan Caves. - Some occasional fading, but generally in very good condition. The brothers Georgios and Constantinos Zangaki, originally hailing from Greece, set up their first studio in Port Said around 1870, and a second one in Cairo around 1895. After the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1869, which opened Europe to Egypt and Eastern Asia, Egypt became a desirable destination for Western tourists. The brothers produced attractive images of Egypt for the growing market of European tourists, drawing on a familiar genre of orientalist scenes.
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Eisenberg, [Friedrich Wilhelm] von.
L'art de monter a cheval, ou description du manege moderne, dans sa perfection. La Haye, P. Gosse & J. Neaulme, 1733.
Oblong folio (398 x 250 mm). Engraved title, letterpress title printed in red and black, (3), 55 (instead of 56) ff. (lacking fol. 37) with 54 (instead of 55) hand-coloured engravings of horses and 4 engravings of horse tack (numbered 1-7). Period half brown calf over marbled boards with giltstamped red spine label. A truly royal copy of Eisenberg's famous riding school, which boasts beautiful illustrations of horses and horsemen (repeated from the 1727 first edition), engraved by B. Picart. Arabian horses in particular are lauded as "the most beautiful 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". Baron Eisenberg was one of the most famous equestrians of his day and served royalty throughout Europe as a riding instructor. - Wants a single plate (no. 37, "Le Superbe") and explanatory text (passage in a straight line after the German fashion), otherwise an excellent copy in full near-contemporary colour. Provenance: gift from Prince Gustaf of Sweden (1736-92, later King Gustav III) to Claes Julius Ekeblad (1742-1808), son of the agronomist countess Eva Ekeblad, the first female member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and of Claes Claesson Ekeblad, with autograph ownership to engraved title: "j'ai eu ce livre de S. A. R. Monseigneur le Prince Gustave, Prince Hereditaire de Suede, Le 23 Novembr. 1764 Claes Julius Ekeblad"; additional note "illuminerad 1797 med färgor af ayaren / Claes Ekeblad" ("coloured with egg tempera in 1797"). Later in the collection of the Swedish statesman and diplomat Lars von Engeström (1751-1826) with his engraved armorial bookplate (motto "speravit infestis", "hopeful in adversity") to pastedown. Lipperheide Tc 41. Hiler 267. Brunet II, 957. Jöcher/Adelung II, 854. Mennessier de la Lance I, 438. Huth 1727. Cohen/R. 345. Hoefer XV, 774. Not in Colas.
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