|
|
|
Churchill, Awnsham & John.
A Collection of Voyages and Travels, Some Now First Printed from Original Manuscripts. London, Henry Lintot & John Osborne, by assignment from Messrs. Churchill, 1744-1746.
Folio (245 x 362 mm). 6 vols. (12), LXXII, (4), 668, (1) pp. (4), 743, (1) pp. 793, (1) pp. (2), IV, 5-780 pp. (4), 708 pp. 824, (104) pp. Title printed in red and black. With 187 engraved plates (many folding) and 9 engravings in the text (showing maps, plans, views, costumes, flora, fauna, scenes, portraits etc., including 2 bound as frontispieces), as well as numerous woodcuts in the text (showing arms, seals, devices, coastal views, details, machinery etc.). Uniform full calf with red labels to spine (gilding oxydized). Third and best edition of this important and profusely illustrated collection of travel reports, compiled by the brothers Awnsham and John Churchill, based on Hakluyt and Purchas. It includes the accounts of Martin Baumgarten (Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Syria), Thomas Roe, Philipp Balde and Johan Nieuhoff (East Indies, including a detailed account of the north-eastern coast of Arabia, with a description of pearl fishing in Bahrain and mentioning Julfar, Qatar, Sir Bani Yas, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Amalgavine, and other places of interest along the coastline), J. Gemelli Careri (Turkey, Persia, India), Nicholas Rolamb (Constantinople), John Barbot (West Africa, with a chapter on "Mahomet and his Alcoran"), as well as of Yemen and various journeys to China, Korea, Greenland, Iceland, Africa, North and South America (including Columbus). - "This is a very valuable collection, both for its range of coverage and for the fact that it gives the original accounts [...] The third edition is considered to be best because of its greater inclusiveness and its copious index" (Hill). Two further volumes were issued separately in 1745, republished in 1752. - The count of the illustrations is notoriously complicated: the "List of the Copper Plates" counts 305 illustrations and maps, of which as many as four are placed on a single plate, and some are placed within the text. Compared to this list, the present set lacks 52 illustrations, or ca. 20 plates, whereas the first volume contains 5 additional plates not called for in the List. Three of the maps (Africa, Asia, America) which the List announces for the first volume are in fact bound in volumes IV-VI. The introduction, a "History of Navigation from its Original to this time", is likely one of the final works of the philosopher John Locke, whose publisher and financial manager Awnsham Churchill had been (while the attribution has been called into question, the text was included in Locke's Complete Works). - Provenance: Byrdie McNeill, Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska (her stamps). Bindings professionally repaired. Some browning; some edge defects, tears and paper flaws, but generally well-preserved. Cox, I, 10. Hill 295. Sabin 13017. Shirley G.CHUR-1d. Alden/L. 744/62. Borba de Moraes I, 158. Landwehr, VOC 260 (note). Cf. National Maritime Museum Cat. I, 33.
|
|
|
Clive, Robert.
A Series of Lithographic Drawings from Sketches by Robert Clive, comprising the undermentioned subjects, lying principally between the Persian Gulf & the Black Sea [...]. London, Dickinson & Co., [1852].
Large folio (456 x 592 mm). Modern half morocco over marbled covers, spine gilt around raised bands with gilt spine title. 9 tinted lithographs on 8 plates (2 on 1 leaf) after Robert Clive. 3 leaves (1 repeat) of letterpress printed on rectos only. First edition of this rare lithographic plate book of Mesopotamian antiquities and views. The first instalment of a total of three, containing nine lithographs: 1. Sculptures at Nimroud-Lions; 2. Moosul; 3. Hît; 4. Distant view of Mount Ararat; 5. Arab encampment near the Birs Nimroud (on one sheet); 6. Sheikh Adi; 7. Baghdad; 8. Roman ruin on the way to Palmyra; 9. Sculptures in the Mount at Nimroud. The Victoria and Albert Museum ascribes this work to the artist Robert Charles Clive (1827-1902). - Original torn and somewhat defective front wrapper laid down on heavy paper and bound into a modern half calf binding; plates and binding fine. The two-page list of plates with descriptions is also laid on heavy paper. OCLC 785146909. Not recorded in Atabey, Blackmer, Tooley, Röhricht or Tobler.
|
|
|
Collingwood, William, R.I.N. surveyor (fl. 1840s-1860s).
Collection of watercolours showing Indian Navy ships in the Arabian Gulf. Includes Collingwood's original surveying telescope. [Mostly Arabian Gulf], 1856-1858.
Three hand-drawn watercolours showing the "Coromandel" (148 x 225 mm), the "Tigris" (178 x 240 mm), and the "Georgiana" (142 x 240 mm), mounted on backing paper, separately matted. With a presentation leather-cased 1½-inch three-draw leather-covered surveying telescope and compass compendium by Andrew Ross, London, contained in 29 cm leather carry case with lid enclosing a lacquered-brass compass, collapsed length 25 cm, expands to 71 cm. A striking collection of original watercolours drawn by Lieutenant William Collingwood, civil engineer in the Royal Indian Navy, during his surveying mission to the Middle East in the mid-1850s. The three ships, all built for the "Honourable [East India] Company", are the H.C. Screw Troop Ship "Coromandel" ("1112 Tons. Commander C. D. Campbell I.N. London to Madras Aug. to Nov. 1856"), the H.C. Brigantine "Tigris" ("Persian Gulf. Entering "Cheroo" Bay. August 1857"), and the H.C. Schooner "Georgiana" ("Lieut. Collingwood Comd. off 'Karack', Feb. 1858"). While the exact location of the "Coromandel" at the time of sketching is not identified (though Collingwood was undoubtedly in the Arabian area at the time), the other two ships are clearly sailing the Arabian Gulf. The "Tigris" is shown entering Cheroo Bay (Chiruyeh, Bandar-e Chiru), on the south coast of Persia, opposite Inderabi Island; the bay was popular with navigators in the region for offering safe shelter from western and northwestern winds, with regular soundings of up to ten fathoms quite near the shore. The "Georgiana" is pictured farther north off Kharg Island, 16 miles from the coast of Bushehr province. Kharg is mentioned in the 10th-century "Hudud al-'alam" as a good source for pearls and was visited by Jean de Thévenot in 1665, who recorded trade with Isfahan and Basra. After the Dutch Empire established both a trading post and a fort on the island in 1753, the Dutch fort was captured in 1766 by Mir Mahanna, the governor of Bandar Rig. The island was briefly occupied in 1838 by the British to block the 1838 Siege of Herat but was soon returned. - Slight loss to upper left corner of all three sheets; some brownstaining and traces of folds, but well-preserved on the whole. The ensemble is neatly complemented by Collingwood's presentation surveying telescope and compass compendium, the telescope being signed and inscribed: "From Comr. Selby, Surveyor in Mesopotamia, to Lieut. W. Collingwood, Asst. Surveyor, in kind remembrance of Services together in Babylonia & Irak Arabia". Commander W. B. Selby, who dedicated this fine telescope-cum-compass set, began his distinguished surveying career in 1837 when, as a midshipman, he embarked on the expedition first to lay navigation buoys in the mouths of the Indus River and then to chart some coastal areas in the "Horn of Africa". By 1846 he was back working off the mouths of the Indus, having made his reputation in Mesopotamia (in 1840-41), and thereafter achieved considerable acclaim for his numerous other surveys, including those during the military expedition to Persia in 1856, before returning to England at the end of 1862. He was succeeded as Surveyor of Mesopotamia by his protégé, Lt. William Collingwood (a distant cousin of the Admiral), who had already done much valuable work in the region, including the large-scale, though surreptitious, mapping of Baghdad in 1855, described by him as follows: "The survey of the city of Baghdad was completed entirely by myself and under very unpleasant restrictions [...] The Turkish Government were not to know anything about it [...] and I was left to survey the town as best I could, and under such difficulties that at times I had to note bearings and paces all over my white shirt, where best I could get the pencil at the time [...]". During this same expedition, Collingwood also surveyed the Shatt-ul-Arab, the city of Bussorah (also by stealth) and much of the country between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and was undoubtedly one of the most gifted and productive R.I.N. surveyors of his day.
|
|
|
[Confidential British Government Memoranda on the Trucial Coast].
Memorandum of information received during the month of January [-December] 1911, regarding affairs in Arabia, the North-East Frontier and Burma. [Calcutta], Foreign Office Press; Simla, G.M. Press, 1911.
Folio (216 x 342 mm). 12 parts in one volume. (4), 23; (2), II, 30; (4), 19, (1); (4), 23, (1); (4), 19, (1); (4), 12; (4), 12; (4), 20; (4), 22; (4), 15, (1); (4), 23, (1); (4), 10 pp. Printed in single columns with blank space left at inner margins for notes. Half sheep over red cloth boards, rebacked, gilt-lettered spine. A full year's worth of confidential memoranda issued by Edward Henry Scamander Clarke (1856-1947), Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, providing a detailed picture of British relations in Arabia and Asia throughout 1911. The memoranda encompass Arabia (including Aden, Baghdad, Kuwait, Muscat, Bahrain, the Gulf, and the Trucial Coast), Tibet, Bhutan, Assam, and Burma. The numerous and frequently extensive paragraphs dedicated to the "Arabian littoral of the Persian Gulf" not only discuss problems of charting and navigating the coastal waters, but also focus on defending British commercial interests in the region at a moment when the international trade was scrambling to access the Arabian pearl banks, while at the same time British authority was taking a dramatic plunge in the aftermath of the notorious "Dubai Incident" of 24 December 1910, a botched gun raid operation that led to rising tensions between Britain and the people of the Trucial Coast. Items include notes on the desire of the "Wahabi Amir of Nejd", Abdulaziz ibn Saud, to "come into closer relations with His Majesty's Government"; proposed hydrographical surveys of possible approaches to Kuwait and Bahrain; a proposed enquiry into the causes of the depletion of the pearl banks in the Gulf, and the possible attitude of the local Arab tribes as well as foreign agents in the area; an investigation into possible business residences of Rosenthal Frères in Dubai and Bahrain, and the question of British firms entering into the local pearling business; a proposal to secure written assurances from the Sheikhs of the Gulf not to extend pearl fishing concessions to foreigners; policy differences between Britain and the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Butti bin Suhail Al Maktoum; piracy committed on a Dubai boat; the proposed establishment of British banks at certain port town along the Gulf coast; a discussion of the need for a treaty with the Qatar Sheikhs; the "question of the sovereignty over Katar"; the cancellation by the Sheikh of Sharjah of an excavation concession granted on Abu Musa island; the replacement of lost light buoys off the Arabian Gulf coast; negotiations with Turkey over territorial differences; Kuwait and the Baghdad Railway; and the Ottoman occupation of Jazirat az Zakhnuniyah (off the Saudi Arabian coast, between Bahrain and Qatar). - Further sections discuss treaties and trade agreements; expeditions and scientific missions; irrigation, shipping and railways, telegraph and postal networks, trade; arms trafficking; disturbances and risings; and British relations with Turkey and China. Also covered are the murder of Noel Williamson, assistant political officer, Sadiya, and his party in the Panga Hills, Assam, and the subsequent Abor Expedition; the Chinese Revolution of 1911 (Xinhai Revolution) and its impact in Tibet and Burma; and the Italo-Turkish War. - A few marks to text. Binding rubbed and marked at extremeties, spine recently rebacked. Extremely rare: no copy traceable in library catalogues internationally.
|
|
|
[Corancez, Louis Alexandre Olivier de].
Histoire des Wahabis, depuis leur origine jusqu'a la fin de 1809. Paris, Crapelet, 1810.
8vo. (4), VIII, 222, (2) pp. Remains of original grey temporary wrappers. Stored in gilt modern quarter morocco box. First edition of this fundamental study of Wahhabism, not translated into Arabic until 2005 ("Tarih al-wahhabiyin mundu naš'atihim hatta 'am 1809 m.", published in Riyadh by Darat al-Malik 'Abd-al-'Aziz). Corancez had lived in Aleppo for eight years as French consul. He married a Syrian and had first-hand information about the Wahhabi movement in Egypt, Syria, and Baghdad. He published his book soon after the followers of the Moslem reformer Abd-el Wahhab conquered the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in 1805, an event that fueled a strong interest in the movement throughout Europe. "This sect, which abhorred all loose living, attracted the attention of a number of travellers. Corancez' account of the Wahabis precedes by many years that of Burckhardt, which was published posthumously in 1830, although both men were living and travelling in Syria at the same time, and presumably knew each other" (Atabey). As Burrell comments, "the final merits - and challenges - of this book are [... that] Corancez was prepared to reflect upon a range of issues which remain relevant and controversial, for many people in the Middle East today. These include the nature of Islam and its apparent resistance to self-doubt and the challenge of change, the complex attitude adopted by Muslims to Christians and Jews, the status of the Prophet Mohammed within Islam, the reasons for the enduring nature of despotic rule in the Middle East, the significance of the different status afforded men and women [...]". - Includes the sometimes-lacking errata final leaf. Slight brownstaining as common; untrimmed as issued with the publisher's temporary grey-blue wrapper largely preserved. Spine chipped; upper cover frayed and partly pasted to half-title. The Atabey copy (in contemporary half morocco) sold for £3,800 at Sotheby's in 2002. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 750. Atabey 282. Gay 3461. Quérard I, 143. Not in Blackmer.
|
|
|
Cubero Sebastian, Pedro.
Breve relacion de la peregrinacion que ha hecho de la mayor parte del mundo. Madrid, Juan Garcia Infaçon, 1680.
4to. (20), 360 pp. Title-page within a border of cast fleurons, woodcut arms of the dedicatee Charles II of Spain, and several woodcut initials and tailpieces. Modern gilt blue morocco by the leading Barcelona binder Emilio Brugalla (1901-87), also active in Madrid, signed at the foot of the front turn-in: "Brugalla 1946", with the arms of the Spanish bibliophile Isidoro Fernandez (1878-1963) stamped in gold on front and back in a blind-stamped panel, double fillets on binding edges and richly gold-tooled turn-ins, gilt edges. First edition of an interesting and detailed account of the first overland journey from Spain to the East Indies (1671-80) made by the Spanish missionary Sebastian Pedro Cubero. Interestingly, Cubero covered most of his route by land, as would later Careri, thus constantly being able to observe the customs, religions, ceremonies and costumes of the peoples he visited, describing them in considerable detail. After spending time in Italy, where he was appointed as a missionary to Asia and the East Indies, Cubero travelled by way of Istanbul and Moscow to Iran, visiting Isfahan ("Hispaham") and Bandar Abbas, after which he finally arrived in India. After crossing to Malacca he was imprisoned by the Dutch and later banished from the city. He then proceeded to the Philippines and ultimately, by way of Mexico, back to Europe. "After a stint as confessor in the imperial army in Hungary, Cubero became one of the notable travellers of the seventeenth century. What set him apart was the variety of his traveller's hats. Most obviously a missionary [...], he also became [...] a representative figure of the whole exploratory enterprise. By circumnavigating the globe in his travels, he was recognized in his own time to be another Magellan, Drake, or Cavendish" (Noonan). - With bookplates on pastedown; t. p. has contemporary ownership of Pere de Ribes-Vallgomera de Boixadors, Marques de Alferras, ennobled by Philip V in 1702. Some occasional foxing and a small restoration, replacing the outer lower corner of the title-page in a subtle facsimile. Very narrow margins, occasionally just shaving the headlines and quire signatures, otherwise in very good condition. Rare in the market: two copies appeared at auction in the last 50 years. Palau 65756. Sabin 17819. OCLC 14110894. Howgego C225. Lach & Van Kley III, 360. Maggs cat. 495, 303. This ed. not in Salvá. For the author cf. F.T. Noonan, The road to Jerusalem: pilgrimage and travel in the age of discovery (2007), p. 104.
|
|
|
Cubero Sebastian, Pedro.
Peregrinacion que ha hecho de la mayor parte del mundo [...]. Zaragoza, Pasqual Bueno, 1688.
4to. (16), 288 pp. With woodcut illustration. Later full vellum with handwritten spine-title. Third edition of an interesting and detailed account of the first overland journey from Spain to the East Indies (1671-80) made by the Spanish missionary Sebastian Pedro Cubero. Interestingly, Cubero covered most of his route by land, as would later Careri, thus constantly being able to observe the customs, religions, ceremonies and costumes of the peoples he visited, describing them in considerable detail. After spending time in Italy, where he was appointed as a missionary to Asia and the East Indies, Cubero travelled by way of Istanbul and Moscow to Persia, visiting Isfahan ("Hispaham") and Bandar Abbas, after which he finally arrived in India. After crossing to Malacca he was imprisoned by the Dutch and later banished from the city. He then proceeded to the Philippines and ultimately, by way of Mexico, back to Europe. "After a stint as confessor in the Imperial army in Hungary, Cubero became one of the notable travellers of the 17th century. What set him apart was the variety of his traveller's hats. Most obviously a missionary [...], he also became [...] a representative figure of the whole exploratory enterprise. By circumnavigating the globe in his travels, he was recognized in his own time to be another Magellan, Drake, or Cavendish" (Noonan). - Limp paper evenly browned throughout; first 30 pp. somewhat wormed; worm holes and some marginal flaws repaired with Japanese paper, entire title-page rebacked thus. Contemporary ownership of the San Juan convent library in Barcelona to title-page. Faded stamp of ownership to title-page and lower flyleaf. The lower flyleaf bears the handwritten ownership of Emanuel Pelegrí Pages and Joan Peregrí, students at San Andrés de la Barca. Palau 65758. Howgego C225. Sabin 17819. Streit-Dindinger V, 598. Alden 688/64. For the author cf. F.T. Noonan, The road to Jerusalem: pilgrimage and travel in the age of discovery (2007), p. 104.
|
|
|
Cubero Sebastiano, Pedro.
Peregrinazione del mondo. Naples, Giuseppe Criscolo, 1683.
4to (157 x 202 mm). (8), 339, (5) pp. With additional engraved title and 2 portraits. Original papered boards with handwritten lettering to spine. First Italian edition of a fascinating and detailed account of the first overland journey from Spain to the East Indies (1671-80) made by the Spanish missionary Sebastian Pedro Cubero. Interestingly, Cubero covered most of his route by land, as would later Careri, thus constantly being able to observe the customs, religions, ceremonies and costumes of the peoples he visited, describing them in considerable detail. After spending time in Italy, where he was appointed as a missionary to Asia and the East Indies, Cubero travelled by way of Istanbul and Moscow to Iran, visiting Isfahan ("Hispaham") and Bandar Abbas, after which he finally arrived in India. After crossing to Malacca he was imprisoned by the Dutch and later banished from the city. He then proceeded to the Philippines and ultimately, by way of Mexico, back to Europe. "After a stint as confessor in the imperial army in Hungary, Cubero became one of the notable travellers of the seventeenth century. What set him apart was the variety of his traveller's hats. Most obviously a missionary [...], he also became [...] a representative figure of the whole exploratory enterprise. By circumnavigating the globe in his travels, he was recognized in his own time to be another Magellan, Drake, or Cavendish" (Noonan). Included are three very three very detailed chapters of devoted to China, Tartary and the Chinese-Tartarian wars. Additionally, there are important discussion of Persia, India, Malacca, the Philippines, and Mexico; chapter XX (pp. 136-156) contains an extensive discussion on Islam, the birth and death of Mohamed and Mecca and Medina. Chapter XXXIII (p. 225-229) contains a discussion of the the Kingdom of Ormuz and Bandar Abbas, the city on the Straits of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. - Bookplate of the New York "Explorers Club" (James B. Ford Library) to pastedown. Old inscriptions to front flyleaf; occasional stains. Lacks lower flyleaf; small tear to corner with loss of some text to fol. O4. This is the only copy of this edition that appears in the auction records over 30 years, no copy in the trade. Howgego C225. Cf. Sabin 17820. Palau 65757. For the author cf. F.T. Noonan, The road to Jerusalem: pilgrimage and travel in the age of discovery (2007), p. 104.
|
|
|
Dakhilih nazarataa 'umur muhaliyh wilayat [Interior Ministry for Vilayets].
Wilayat yawlalaa kharituh sydur [Road Maps of the Vilayets]. Istanbul, Dahiliye Nezareti Umur-Mahalliye-i Vilâyat Müdiriyeti, Hilâl Matbaas, [1913 CE =] 1329 Rumi.
Large 4to (260 x 328 mm). 26 bi-chrome lithographed double-page maps (each 485 x 315 mm), with 48 sheets of interleaved text, all contents unnumbered and entirely in Ottoman Turkish. Original half black cloth over red boards with cover bearing the title and the Tughra of Sultan Mehmed V Reshad in gilt. This is one of the rarest and most extraordinary works of late Ottoman cartography, produced by the Interior Ministry at the behest of the "Young Turks" regime on the eve of World War I. Published with text entirely in Ottoman Turkish, the atlas consists of 26 double-page maps, all of an extraordinary proto-modernist design, accompanied by detailed text explaining all of the road itineraries depicted. All of the maps are original productions, predicated upon the latest official sources supplied by both state engineers and private contractors. Of the maps, eight focus exclusively upon subjects from the Arab world, including a dedicated map of the Hejaz (with the Hejaz Railway and pilgrimage routes), as well as a map focussing upon Mecca and Jeddah. The atlas provides by far and away the most comprehensive and accurate record of the road system throughout the Ottoman Empire, taken in the wake of an unprecedented wave of infrastructure development. Additionally, while not part of the technical remit of the work, the maps also provide a stellar overview of the Ottoman railway system, including the Hejaz Railway and the in-progress Anatolian-Baghdad Railway. The atlas therefore gives the most authoritative historical accounts of the technical nature of the empire’s key corridors of military and commercial movement, as well as the most important routes of the Hajj Pilgrimage, during a critical historical juncture. - Internally remarkably clean and crisp, just some light natural oxidization of the original glue along the gutters of some leaves and light even toning to text pages, plus a few negligible stains, but overall in a very good condition. Özege 22737. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfý - Ýslâm Araþtýrmalarý Merkezi (ÝSAM) [Turkey Diyanet Foundation - Centre for Islamic Studies, Istanbul] 912.95607 VÝL.Y. Dâhiliye Nezareti Umur-i Mahalliye ve Vilayat Müdürlügü Evraki [Archives of the Turkish Interior Ministry, Ankara] DH UMVM 74/31. Istanbul Büyüksehir Belediyesi Atatürk Kitapligi [Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Atatürk Library] 23589. OCLC 51297423 (listing the work, but not citing the locations of any examples). - Citations in recent academic publications: E. Erol, The Ottoman Crisis in Western Anatolia: Turkey’s Belle Epoque and the and the Transition to a Modern Nation State (London, 2016), pp. 73 & 301. A. Kisa, "II. Mesrutiyet Dönemi’nde Bitlis Vilayeti’nde Karayollari" [Highways in Bitlis Province During the Second Constitutional Era], Tarih ve Gelecek Dergisi, Aralik 2019, Cilt 5, Sayi 3 [Journal of History and the Future, December 2019, Vol. 5, Issue 3], pp. 702-711, esp. pp. 707-708.
|
|
|
[Dapper, Olfert].
Umbständliche und eigentliche Beschreibung von Asia: In sich haltend die Landschafften Mesopotamien, Babylonien, Assyrien, Anatolien oder Klein-Asien. Ins Hochteutsche getreulichst übersetzet von J. Ch. Beern. Nuremberg, Froberg f. Hoffmann, 1681.
Folio (220 x 332 mm). (8), 556, (12) pp. With engraved frontispiece, 3 double-page-sized engraved maps, 20 engraved plates (13 double-page-sized, 1 folding), and 8 engravings in the text. Contemp. calf with gilt spine. First German edition of Dapper's description of the Middle East, including Mesopotamia or Algizira, Assyria, and Anatolia; the second part is entirely devoted to Arabia. Dapper's work is of special importance for its original and new information on Islam, Arab science, astronomy, philosophy, and historiography, as well as for its illustrations. "Dr. Olfert Dapper (1636-1689), physician, geographical and historical scholar, was the author of a series of works dealing with Africa, America and Asia. The fine plates [...] are after a number of mapmakers and artists, including Christiaan van Adrichom, Juan Bautista Villalpando and Wenzel Hollar among others" (Blackmer). Includes accounts of Mecca (with a description of the Hajj), Jeddah, Medina, Sana'a, etc. The engravings show costumes, religious rites, specimens of local flora, views, etc., including Aden, Mocha, Maskat, Babylon, Baghdad, Ninive, Ephesus, and Smyrna (re-engraved from the Dutch original edition). - Old repair to view of the Tower of Babylon (slight loss to image). Engraved armorial bookplate "ex Bibliotheca Blomiana" to pastedown. Formerly in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. VD 17, 39:133144U. STC D 200. Blackmer 450. Tiele 300 (note).
|
|
|
De Bry, Theodor / Johann Israel de Bry / Joris van Spilbergen.
Indiae Orientalis pars septima [...]. Including: Icones, hoc est verae variorum populorum et regum, ceremoniarum item, superstitiosorum rituum et rerum aliarum [...]. Frankfurt, Wolfgang Richter, 1606.
Folio (325 × 200 mm). With the letterpress title within an engraved architectural border, an individual letterpress title-page for the Icones, an engraved coat of arms on the dedication leaf, 20 engravings in text and 2 double-page engraved plates. 20th-century green half morocco. First edition of the Latin translation of book seven of Théodore de Bry's Petits voyages, the greatest single collection of material on early voyages to the East Indies, which is considered unique in its extraordinary wealth of cartographical and visual material. Crucially, this much-sought volume includes Gasparo Balbi's groundbreaking account of the Middle East, first published in 1590 as Viaggio dell' Indie Orientali - a mere 16 years before this present issue, making this the second appearance in print altogether and the first Latin translation. Balbi, a Venetian jewel merchant, travelled extensively in the Arabian Peninsula in search of precious stones. From Venice he sailed for Aleppo, proceeding to Bir and from there overland to Baghdad, descending the Tigris to Basra, where he embarked for India. While in the Gulf, he studied the pearl industry, noting that the best pearls were to be found at Bahrain and Julfar. He refers to islands in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (including Sir Bani Yas and Das) and to several coastal settlements that were to become permanently established, such as Dubai and Ras al Khaima. Balbi was the first to record the place names along the coast of modern Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Practically "none of the names of places on the coast between Qatar and Ras al Khaima occur in other sources before the end of the eighteenth century" (Slot). The volume also comprises the account of Joris von Spilbergen's voyage to Ceylon in 1601-1604 (with excellent plates). - A note with red pencil on the second leaf, browned, some small spots, otherwise in good condition. Brunet I, col. 1334. Cf. Carter, Sea of pearls, p. 79. Howgego, to 1800, B7. Slot, The Arabs of the Gulf, 1602-1784. United Arab Emirates yearbook 2006, p. 20.
|
|
|
De Rossi, Giovanni Bernardo.
De corano arabico Venetiis Paganini typis impresso sub in. sec. XVI dissertatio. Parma, ex Imperiali Typographeo (Bodoni), 1805.
8vo. 16 pp. Uncut and untrimmed in contemporary wrappers. Only edition. This rare treatise in the form of a letter addressed to the Arabist and bibliographer Schnurrer discusses the famed sixteenth-century Venetian edition of the Qur'an in Arabic. De Rossi, the distinguished orientalist and librarian of Parma, here proves that Paganini ceased printing in 1518, at which time he was succeeded in his business by his son Alessandro. Rossi therefore places the printing of the Qur'an at 1518 or earlier, although others have proposed it could have been printed as early as 1509, which would have made Paganini's Qur'an the first book printed in Arabic. In fact, Paganino and Alessandro Paganini produced what was the first printed edition of the Qur'an in Arabic, probably intended for export to the Ottoman Empire, between 1537 and 1538. While there existed numerous contemporary reports of its existence, all physical evidence of it disappeared for centuries, and rumor had it that the Pope had the complete print run burned. The book was long even considered a bibliographical "ghost" until a single copy was rediscovered in the library of the Franciscan Friars of San Michele in Isola, Venice, by Angela Nuovo in 1987 (cf. A. Nuovo, "Il Corano arabo ritrovato", in: Bibliofilia LXXX.9 [1987], pp. 237-272, and the English translation in The Library, 6th series, 12.4 [1990], pp. 273-292). - Uncut and untrimmed as issued; a wide-margined copy of this fine Bodoni imprint in perfect condition. Brooks 1415e. Schnurrer, p. 403. OCLC 18368416.
|
|
|
De Rossi, Giovanni Bernardo, Italian orientalist and bibliographer (1742-1831).
Poemata anatolico-polyglotta seu plurium linguarum OO. in laudem Magni Regis Sardiniae Caroli Emmanualis [...]. [Probably Turin], 1767.
4to (185 x 228 mm). (1), (112) pp. Text enclosed within pencil and sanguine rules. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped borders and spine and the arms of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia on both covers. Leading endges gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. Green silk band. A fine dedicatory manuscript, pre-dating the noted Hebraist's first published work: an assembly of polyglot odes by the 25-year-old scholar to the royal family of Sardinia, written in Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, Ethopian, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac, all with their Latin translation opposite. - De Rossi studied at Ivrea and Turin. In 1769 he was appointed professor of oriental languages at the University of Parma, where he would spend the rest of his life, known as one of his age's greatest Italian scholars of early printing in Hebrew. - Light browning; first and last leaves a little stained. Ink shows various degrees of bleeding to versos, often very light but quite noticeable in the title-page. The volume bears the arms of Charles Emmanuel III, Duke of Savoy, who ruled as King of Sardinia from 1730 until his death in 1773, and must have been presented to him. The otherwise blank first leaf was turned into a half-title in the 19th century by the scholar and priest Natale Martinetti: "Poemi Orientali di Gioanni Derossi di Castelnuovo Canavese, Dottore di Sacra Teologia, in L'ode degli augustissimi Sovrani e Duchi della Real Casa Di Savoja. Manoscritti dal medesimo De-Rossi, appartenenti a me Natale Martinetti di Cigliano".
|
|
|
[Décade égyptienne].
La Décade égyptienne. Journal littéraire et d'économie politique. Cairo, de l'imprimerie nationale, an VII-VIII [1798-1801].
Small 4to. 3 vols. (2), 300 pp. (2), 300 pp. 316 pp. Near-contemporary half calf over green papered boards with gilt spines. Extremely rare, entirely complete run of this journal, praised by Guérmard as a "truly scientific review" and hailed by Glass and Roper as the first periodical published in the "Arab world". The 916 pages of these various issues appeared between 1798 and 21 March 1801: first every 10 days, then monthly for the second volume, and quarterly for the third. - The journal has great interest for marking the beginning of printing in Egypt: "The expedition of Napoleon Bonaparte to Egypt from 1798 until 1801 was a prelude to modernity. It was to change permanently the traditional Arab world [...] The French brought Arabic typography to Egypt [...] For, leaving aside the Hebrew printing presses in Egypt of the 16th to the 18th centuries, until this date announcements and news adressed to Arabs there, as well as in other parts of the Arab-Islamic world, had been spread only in hand-writing or orally, by criers, preachers or storytellers [...] The periodical [...] 'La Décade Egyptienne' [was one of] the first press productions of Egypt" (D. Glass and G. Roper, cf. below). - The journal took its name from the "Décade philosophique", the publication of the Institut National's Section des Sciences morales et politiques, and contains "soit le texte intégral, soit le texte intégral, soit des extraits d'un grand nombre de mémoires ou rapports présentés au premier Institut d'Égypte par des membres de l'expédition, faisant pour la plupart partie de la Commission des sciences et arts. On y trouve également des observations faites par des médicins placés sous les ordres de Desgenettes. Celui-ci dirigea d'ailleurs la publication après le départ de Tallien" (de Meulenaere). At the time of the French capitulation, the first 24 pages of a fourth volume were in the press, but they were never distributed, and the only copy of these sheets remains in the Library of the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels (cf. ibid.). - First and last volume show traces of worming, occasionally touching the text, with additional brownstains in the lower corner of vol. 3 near the end. Bound in the mid-19th century for Gaillardot Bey, with his handwritten ownership "Ch. Gaillardot" on the half-title of the first volume. D. Charles Gaillardot (1814-83) served as one of the two vice-presidents of the Egyptian Institute in 1881. A professor of natural history at the National School of Medicine in Cairo founded by Antoine Clot Bey, for 20 years head physician at the military hospital and finally director of the Cairo medical school, he had created in the Egyptian capital a "Musée Bonaparte" of his personal collections, comprising books, engravings, weapons, and decorative items - keepsakes of the French Expedition to Egypt, today dispersed. Later in the collection of the writer André Maurois (1885-1967) with his engraved bookplate to pastedown. D. Glass/G. Roper, Arabic Book and Newspaper Printing in the Arab World, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution (Gutenberg Museum Mainz 2002), pp. 177-216, at pp. 182 & 207 ("scientific magazine [... first periodical] of the 'Arab world'"). Maunier, Bibliogr. économique, juridique, et sociale de l'Égypte moderne, p. XXIV, no. 2. De Meulenaere, Bibliogr. raisonnée des témoignages de l'Expédition de l'Égypte, p. 57. Not in Blackmer or Atabey.
|
|
|
[Description de l'Égypte].
Description de l'Egypte, ou recueil des observations et des recherches, qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée Française. Paris, C. L. F. Panckoucke, 1820-1829.
A total of 36 vols.: 26 text vols. (4to) and 10 atlas vols. (elephant folio). With coloured frontispiece and 899 engraved plates and maps, many double-page-sized and folded. Slightly later English half calf, professionally repaired in places. Second edition of this monumental work (the first was published from 1809 onwards), the first comprehensive description of ancient and modern Egypt. Commissioned by Napoleon during his Egyptian campaign between 1798 and 1801, this encompassing historical, archaeological, art-historical, and natural-historical account of the country was realised through the efforts of the Institut d'Egypte in Cairo. Its influence was enormous, establishing Egyptology as an intellectual discipline and nurturing a passion for Egyptian art throughout the Western world. Edited by some of the leading intellectual figures in France, the Description also includes contributions from celebrated artists such as Jacques Barraband, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, Jules-César Savigny and others. More than 150 scholars and scientists and some 2000 artists, designers and engravers were involved in its preparation. The success of the publication was such that work on the second edition (known as the "Pancoucke edition") began before the first was completed. The text was expanded into a greater number of volumes, now printed in a smaller format; new pulls were taken from the plates, and these were bound with many of the large-format plates folded into the new, reduced dimensions. - A splendid, clean copy, complete with all the plates. An incomplete copy of the second edition of the Description de l'Egypte sold at Sotheby's for £68,750 in 2016. Blackmer 526. Gay 1999. Brunet II, 617. Graesse II, 366. Cf. Monglond VIII, 268-343 (for the first edition). Nissen, BBI 2234. Nissen, ZBI 4608. Heritage Library, Islamic Treasures, s. v. "Art" (illustration).
|
|
|
Dionysius Periegetes.
De situ orbis habitabilis. (Venice, Franz Renner, 1478).
Small 4to (190 x 140 mm). (36) ff. With the first four lines printed in red and 9 white on black decorated woodcut initials (1 series), plus 1 repeat. Set in roman type, 26 lines to a page, with two words in Greek. Modern blind-tooled calf. A famous description of the antique world, originally written in Greek verse around the beginning of the second century AD by Dionysios Periegetes, also known as Dionysius of Alexandria, including early mentions of China and Arabia. The poem exerted a great influence during the Middle ages and remained popular well into the Renaissance. One of its main appeals are the literary descriptions of faraway countries, which leave more space for imagination than the more scientific geographical descriptions like those of Mela and Solinus. - It was translated into Latin prose by the Veronese humanist Antonio da Beccaria and first published a year earlier by Erhard Ratdolt, the former partner of Franz Renner, two German printers active in Venice. The poem had first appeared in print in a free verse translation in Priscian's Opera in 1470. - "Until the thirteenth century, Asia beyond India was practically unknown in Europe; only vague references to the Serica or Sinica of the Graeco-Romans helped keep alive a sketchy knowledge of China's existence". Mentions here in Dionysius's text referring to "Thina" hark back to the mentions in the Periplus of the 1st century AD, which were the earliest surviving accounts in European literature (Löwendahl). - Dionysius lived in Pharos, an Alexandrian neighbourhood, at the time of Hadrian (117-138). Further information in the poem suggests a date of composition before 130. At that period, geography was not deemed an important component of the school curriculum but rather an ancillary subject to rhetoric. Dionysius composed his poem with these didactic ramifications in mind. In addition to imparting geographical knowledge, he wanted to acquaint the students with the great classical authors, notably Homer. He therefore composed his poem in hexameters, after Homer, and included many mythological place names, for instance from the journey of the Argonauts, but also the borders of the historical empire of the Seleucids. In this manner, the "Description of the inhabited world" became a guided tour through the world of antique geography. - Some minor waterstains in the margins of the second half of the volume, the first and last leaves reattached and some occasional foxing, otherwise in very good condition, washed. Goff D-254. IDL 1556. ISTC id00254000. Proctor 4173. Cf. Löwendahl 1 (1477 ed.). Sarton, Introduction I, p. 258. Tozer, A history of ancient geography (1897), pp. 281-287.
|
|
|
Djemal Pascha, Ahmed / Wiegand, Theodor.
[Suria wa-Falastin wa-garbi 'Arabistan abidat-i-atigasy]. Alte Denkmäler aus Syrien, Palästina und Westarabien. 100 Tafeln mit beschreibendem Text. Berlin, Georg Reimer, 1918.
Folio (34.5 x 24 cm). 10 pp., 100 ff. With 100 plates (143 reproductions of photographs). Publisher's original pink cloth with Arabic and German title on upper board. First and only edition of this bilingual work with 143 photographs of Middle-Eastern archeology, compiled by the well-known German archaeologist Theodor Wiegand (1864-1936). The publication was commissioned by Ahmed Djemal Pasha (Jamal Basha, 1872-22), the Ottoman military leader and Minister of the Navy, who also wrote the foreword. The plates show archaeological excavation sites in Aleppo, Amman, Baalbek, Damascus, Gerasa, Jerusalem, Palmyra, Petra, and other places. Each plate is accompanied by a separate leaf explaining the photographs, with the text in both Arabic and German. Some of the photographs are by the Swedish photographer Lewis Larsson (1881-1958), others were taken during the expedition by Otto Puchstein (1856-1911) to the capital of the ancient Hittite Empire, Hattusa, in present-day Turkey. - Only slightly browned. Spine somewhat discoloured. A very good copy. M. Greenhalgh, Constantinople to Córdoba: dismantling ancient architecture in the East, North Africa and Islamic Spain (2012), p. 478.
|
|
|
Doughty, Charles [Montagu].
Documents épigraphiques recueillis dans le nord de L'Arabie. Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1884.
Large 4to (236 x 290 mm). (6), 63, (1) pp. With 57 plates, mostly heliographed, of archaeological inscriptions, sites and maps, 9 folding. Contemporary half calf over cloth boards with red label to richly gilt spine. Only edition: the "first fruits of Arabia" (Hogarth, Life of Charles M. Doughty, 1928), and the first publication in English of any account of Doughty's travels, predating "Travels in Arabia Deserta" by four years. (In spite of the French publication, the "Note de M. Doughty sur son voyage", comprising pp. 7-35, is entirely in English.) Doughty (1843-1926) first met the great French orientalist and writer Ernest Renan in 1883, and after the failure of his attempt to sell to Berlin the copies of the inscriptions he had made in the region of El-Hejr and Medain Salih, Renan wrote the preface and supervised the publication of Doughty's work in Paris. - Occasional light foxing, mainly confined to endpapers, but an appealing copy, removed from the University of Lancaster Library with their bookplate to the flyleaf and their stamp to the title-page; additional armorial bookplate to pastedown. Macro 855.
|
|
|
Robertson, William.
[Binding title:] Egypt & Nubia. Cairo [and elsewhere in Egypt and Nubia], 1838-1839.
Double Crown folio (48 x 36.5 cm). [37] ff. including title-leaf and 7 blanks, plus 16 loosely inserted ff. Album containing 42 pencil and other drawings (a few partly coloured) and 3 squeezes, some on the album leaves and some loosely inserted, mostly of ancient Egyptian and Nubian architecture, sculpture, bas-reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions, but also with a few botanical drawings and landscapes with buildings. Most have English-language captions in brown ink and are signed and dated 1838 to 1839. New black half morocco, on recessed cords, title and double fillets in gold on spine, using mid-19th-century marbled paper for the sides (blue-green Spanish-marble with black and white veins). An album of drawings (and squeezes of bas reliefs) made by William Robertson on a journey from Cairo in December 1838 down the Nile into Nubia, reaching as far south as the present-day Egyptian-Sudanese border region, including the temples of Abu Simbel, in January 1839, then returning via Philae, Karnak and other sites to Thebes in February 1839. They give very detailed views of numerous buildings, sculptures, bas-reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions, as well as more distant views of landscapes with buildings and three botanical drawings. While Robertson made most of his drawings on site, he drew the Temple at Luxor after a drawing by Achille Émile Prisse d'Avennes (1807-1879) who began exploring and drawing the ancient Egyptian sites in 1836 and published many of his drawings in 1847. The squeezes of bas-reliefs are of special interest, for they preserve a very precise record of the original with little influence from personal interpretation: the paper was wetted, pressed into the relief and allowed to dry. In addition to the three clear squeezes, a couple of the drawings also seem to have been made on flattened squeezes (some of those that survive as squeezes also have some lines drawn over them them). Since many of the ancient Egyptian sites have been looted and damaged over the years, these early drawings and squeezes provide an important record of what was there in 1838/39 and how it was situated, before the first photographs were made. The building of the old Aswan dam in 1902 caused frequent flooding and damage at the site of Philae, now an island, and most of its treasures were removed before completion of the new Aswan dam in 1970. The album has no true title-page, but the leaf before the first drawing has a slip pasted to it giving the name of the artist, dated from Cairo, December 1838. We have not identified the artist. The clergyman and historian William Robertson and his son of the same name died before 1838 and the archaeologist William Robertson Smith was not born until 1846. Thieme & Becker notes two artists named William Robertson, active two or three decades before and after the present drawings, but provides so little information that we cannot link them to either. He may possibly be the Irish-born London architect William Robertson (1770-1850), who took an early interest in Egyptian revival, but he would have been nearly seventy when these drawings were made. The loosely inserted drawings and squeezes are made on at least 8 different paper stocks, wove and laid, one of the wove stocks machine-made (the "watermark" left by the papermaking machine's belt seam appears in one sheet). A few of the original album leaves are now detached and may have been removed by the artist himself. The squeezes have inevitably been flattened in the album, but they still show the contours of the original bas-reliefs very clearly. One inserted drawing is severely foxed and one inserted floor plan is rather dirty, but in general the drawings are in very good condition. A detailed graphic record of ancient Egyptian art, architecture and hieroglyphic inscriptions, made before many of the worst depredations.
|
|
|
Du Camp, Maxime.
Égypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie: dessins photographiques recueillis pendant les années 1849, 1850 et 1851, accompagnés d’un texte explicatif et précédés d’une introduction. Paris, Gide & J. Baudry, 1852.
Folio (447 × 315 mm). 125 mounted original salt prints, letterpress captions to mounting leaves and tissue-guards, 3 small engravings to the introductory text, double-page engraved plan of Karnak, single-page plans of Medinet-Habu and the island of Philae. Recent half brown cloth, marbled boards, original spine, brown hard-grained morocco laid down, title gilt direct, low flat bands with dotted roll gilt, double fillet panels to the compartments, new endpapers, original marbled free endpapers retained. Extremely rare first edition, complete, illustrated with 125 salt prints from wet paper negatives (Blanquart-Evrard process) mounted one to a page. Maxime Du Camp’s monumental survey, "Égypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie", was the first of its kind, the first travel album to be completely illustrated with photographs of archaeological monuments. - A young man of independent means, Du Camp learnt the craft of photography from Le Gray in 1849 in preparation for his second journey to North Africa. By the time he came to Abu Simbel in March 1850 to explore the rock-cut temples built by Ramesses II (reigned 1292-1225 BC), Du Camp was thoroughly at ease with the medium. With official backing from the French Government, and travelling in the company of the novelist Gustave Flaubert, Du Camp returned with over 200 paper negatives of the antiquities of Egypt and the Near East, of which 125 were published in the present work. The illustrations were produced at the photographic printing works of Louis-Désiré Blanquard-Évrard at Lille and their distinctive cool neutral tones are due to the prints being chemically developed rather than merely printed-out in sunlight. - Distinguished as it was, Du Camp’s photographic career was short-lived. After the completion of his magisterial survey of the antiquities of the Near East, he abandoned photography entirely in favour of literary pursuits. - Soundly bound, presenting well on the shelf. Front hinge slightly cracked towards the head at the first blank, some very light foxing throughout, but altogether an excellent copy. Parr/Badger, The Photobook, I, 73. QNL Inaugural Exhibition (2018), 153.
|
|
|
[Dubai and Sharjah].
Collection of six original photographs. Dubai and Sharjah, early 1940s.
6 black and white photographs. 70 x 95 and 60 x 83 mm. Framed and glazed as a set. The photos depict images of boats and coastal life in and around Dubai's harbour, two women wearing abayas with hijabs and niqabs, walking in a desert plain of Sharjah, as well as desert dwellings and ports and boardwalks in Sharjah. This collection gives us a glimpse of the Dubai and Sharjah before the construction boom that started in the 1970s. Overall an intriguing collection in very good condition, capturing the coastal and desert life of a bygone era.
|
|
|
Dupuis, Guillaume (Puteanus).
De medicamentorum quomodocunque purgantium facultatibus, nusquam anteà neque dictis, neque per ordinem digestis libri duo [...]. Lyon, Matthias Bonhomme, 1552.
4to. (8), 179, (1) pp. With woodcut printer's device to title-page and numerous woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. Extremely rare: the first edition of this pharmaceutical treatise by the elusive physician Guillaume Dupuis (fl. 1536-51) from Blangy in northern France but long settled in Grenoble. "Il [...] exerca longtemps la médicine avec une grande réputation [... et] était en même temps professeur à l'université de cette ville" (Hoefer). The work was republished in 1554, with a treatise by Cousinot, under the title "De occultis pharmacorum purgantium facultatibus". Like most of its kind, it draws heavily on Galen and the Arabic tradition of Mesue; p. 105 refers to the use of Aloe among the Arab physicians. - Browning and dampstains throughout; numerous ink annotations to endpapers and throughout; occasional worming, mainly confined to margins. Several paper flaws to the edges. Binding wrinkled and rubbed. - Provenance: Several near-contemporary ink ownerships by the pharmacist Joseph Nicolau (including in the device and the first initial); additional 18th century ink ownerships by Luís Ferrari. BM-STC French 145. Wellcome 5300. Ferchl 428 ("Leiden" in error). Baudrier X, 223. Gültingen VIII, 95, 158. Hoefer XV, 367. Not in Durling, but NLM WZ 240 ("Imperfect: p. 177 mutilated"). OCLC 14307014. Not in Waller or Osler.
|
|
|
[East India Company].
Minutes of evidence taken before the select committee on the affairs of the East India Company and also an appendix and index. VI. Political or Foreign. London, for the House of Commons, 16 August 1832.
Folio (214 x 334 mm). X, 565, (3) pp. With 1 folding map. Modern half cloth. Includes the first publication of the treaties closed by the British with the Gulf sheikhdoms following General W. Grant Keir's raid on Ras al-Khaimah in 1819/20: the preliminary treaties with Hassan bin Rama (Ras al-Khaimah, 8 Jan. 1820); Sultan bin Sakr (9 Jan. 1820), Sheikh Kameya bin Mahomed bin Jabin al Moyeying, Sheikh of Kishmee, of Dubai (9 Jan. 1820), Sheikh Shakhbool bin Dhyab of Abu Dhabi (11 Jan. 1820), Hassan bin Ali, for Sharjah, Umm al-Quwain, Ajman, and Abu Dhabi (15 Jan. 1830). Also, Sketch of the Articles proposed to H.H. the Imaum of Muscat for the Prevention of the Foreign Slave Trade, in 1822. - Slight waterstaining near beginning, but well-preserved. Rare. OCLC 45474897.
|
|
|
Eccleston, John.
Jerusalem Photographic Album. Newark, NJ, 1865.
Large folio. 12 leaves (22 x 16 inches), each containing a large mounted albumen photograph (ca. 12 x 10 inches) with descriptive letterpress beneath. Original leather-backed marbled boards with gilt-lettered roan label on front cover and leaf of printed introductory text mounted to inside front board. Skilfully rebacked and recornered. Small, unobtrusive 19th century embossed library stamp at lower right blank corner of each mount, minor wear at board extremities and chipping at edge of front endpaper, else an unusually clean and nice copy, with the photographic plates in perfect condition. An extremely rare photographic work, unrecorded in the major scholarly studies of early photography in the Holy Land. - According to the introductory text, "In the winter of 1859 the King of Prussia sent an artist to the Holy Land to procure views for his portfolio. Having reached Jerusalem, whilst the Royal commission was being executed, I was so fortunate as to secure (through the courtesy of Right Reverend Samuel Gobat, of the Anglican and Prussian mission) fine impressions from the most valuable of these negatives [...] they are now published, at the request of many persons [...]". Eccleston was an Anglican minister in Newark, New Jersey. - A gilt frame surrounds each photograph, beneath which is the title of the plate and two columns of letterpress text within a decorative type-ornament border. The titles of the plates are: Garden of Gethsemane; Damascus Gate; Jew's Waling Place; Church of Holy Sepulchre; Mosk El-Aksa / Solomon's Bridge; Valley of the Son of Hinnom; St. Stephen's Gate; Golden Gate; Top View of Jerusalem; Bethany; Via Dolorosa and Ecce Homo Arch; Mount Moriah and the Mosque of Omar. - We have been unable to identify the photographer, as the work is unrecorded by the leading authorities on early photography in the Holy Land, and the photographs themselves do not appear in any of the other known photographic albums of the period. Both Eyal Onne, "Photographic Heritage of the Holy Land 1839-1914" (Manchester 1980), and Yeshayahu Nir, "The Bible and the Image" (Philadelphia 1985), record in considerable detail the early missions to the Holy Land and the photographers who either accompanied these missions or who were living in the Holy Land and were retained by the missions. In neither work is the king of Prussia's mission recorded, nor is "Jerusalem Photographic Album" recorded in either bibliography of early photographic works on the Holy Land. Similarly, the recent book, "Revealing the Holy Land: The Photographic Exploration of Palestine" by Kathleen Stewart Howe (1997) records neither Eccleston's book nor these photographs. - Though seemingly unknown to scholars working in the field, two copies of Eccleston's book are indeed known: the NUC and RLIN both record one copy, at Yale, and OCLC locates a second copy at the University of Texas. Our copy was given by Eccleston, probably soon after publication, to his local library company; in the 1880s the library company was absorbed by a newly-created public library, from which it was purchased.
|
|
|
Estève, Martin-Roch-Xavier.
Règlement du payeur général [de l'armée d'Orient] sur les fabriques d'eau-de-vie. Cairo, Imprimerie nationale, [ca. 1800].
Folio (325 x 465 mm). Broadsheet. Printed in French and Arabic in two columns. Only known copy of this broadside intended for wall-mounting, printed by the first printing press in the Arab world. Issued by the paymaster of Napoleon's Armée de l'Orient, Martin-Roch-Xavier Estève (1772-1852), it is a proclaimation of six articles regulating the production of liquor, mosty from dates, in Cairo, Giza, and Boulaq (now a district of Cairo), including tariffs on the raw materials and final product, a maximum price, and corresponding fines. Distilleries needed to be registered and marked in capital letters as "Fabrique d'eau de vie" within a fixed period following the proclamation. Inspectors were supposed to make "frequent inspections", checking, among other things, that the produced liquor had at least 18 per cent by volume and that it be "of good quality and without any kind of adulteration detrimental to health". The raw materials enumerated in the proclamation include five qualities of fresh dates, dried dates, figs, and raisins. - Small waterstain in the lower edge, traces of folds, otherwise well preserved. No copy in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, not recorded in OCLC. The only known documentation for this highly interesting broadside is the sales catalogue for the library of the famous orientalist Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy. Bibliothèque de M. le baron Silvestre de Sacy, Vol. III, Paris, 1847, p. 461, no. 50. Cf. D. Glass/G. Roper, The Printing of Arabic Books in the Arab World, in: Middle Eastern Languages and the Print Revolution (Gutenberg Museum Mainz 2002), p. 177-225, at 182.
|
|
|
Euclid.
Tahrir kitab al-manazir. [Optics]. [Central Asia, 19th century].
4to (154 x 230 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished oriental paper. (45) pp., 11 lines, per extensum. Black ink with red emphases. With numerous red ink diagrams in the margins. Later full black cloth. An Arabic manuscript of the "Optics" by Euclid, a work on the geometry of vision. According to Euclid, the eye sees objects that are within its visual cone. The visual cone is made up of straight lines, or visual rays, extending outward from the eye. These visual rays are discrete, but we perceive a continuous image because our eyes, and thus our visual rays, move very quickly. - Incomplete, comprising only the first 23 ff. Paper browned; occasional light brownstaining; a paper flaw to the final leaf has been remargined.
|
|
|
Euclid / at-Tusi, Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad.
Kitab tahrir al-usul li-Uqlidis (Commentary on Euclid's Elements). Fes (Alawi Morocco), al-Matba`ah al-`Amirah, Khidmat al-`Arabi al-Azraq (colophon with name of Sultan Muley Hassan), [1 Nov. 1876 CE =] 13 Shawwal 1293 H.
4to. 2 vols. (1), 455, 4 pp. (4), 445, (3) pp. Each page with 19 lines of Maghribi script within double rules. With numerous diagrams. Lithographed on thick paper throughout. Contemporary red morocco boards with gilt cover decorations and fore-edge flap. Calligraphic title to lower edges. Very rare Moroccan-printed (lithographed) Arabic edition of Euclid's famous "Elements of Geometry", the "oldest mathematical textbook in the world still in common use today" (PMM). The translation and commentary, first printed in 1594, are by the great Persian polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-74), after whom the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named. - Evenly browned throughout; occasional slight traces of worming. Bindings a little chipped at extremeties, but a very appealingly preserved copy. OCLC lists only four copies in libraries (Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge). OCLC 83666245. Cf. PMM 25.
|
|
|
Faik Bey, Mühendis.
Seyâhatnâme-i Bahr-i Muhit. Istanbul, Mekteb-i Bahriye-i Sâhâne Matbaasi, [1868 CE =] 1285 H.
8vo. (1), 81, (1) pp. Ottoman Turkish in Arabic type. Modern blindstamped full calf with the Turkish crescent and star to upper cover, and giltstamped spine. Marbled endpapers. First and only early edition. - An exceedingly rare travelogue of the first ever voyage of the Ottoman navy to the American continent, albeit accidental. Thrown off their course to Basra by a storm on the Atlantic near Cape Verde, the two Ottoman warships Bursa and Izmir were dragged in the opposite direction, to Rio de Janeiro. This lively account by the Turkish engineer and naval officer Faik Bey describes all the stages of the corvettes' 13-month journey, their voyage from Istanbul across the Mediterranean Sea to Cadiz, on to the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands, and the fierce storm that brought them to the shores of Brazil, where they laid anchor at the port of Rio de Janeiro before setting sail again two months later. They visited many ports and countries including the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Muscat, Bombay, and Iran, before finally reaching Basra in November 1866. Faik Bey gives a personal account of what must have been an exciting but strenuous journey, while also reflecting on the economic conditions in the Ottoman state and the Islamic world at the time. - Extremely rare; we were not able to trace a single library copy. A second edition was not published until 138 years after the first, in 2006 (Istanbul, Kitabevi). - A second account of this voyage, written by Imam Abdurrahman Efendi, who remained in Brazil for a while before returning to Istanbul, was published in 1871. It only briefly mentions the voyage to South America, instead focussing on the author's time in Brazil and his return journey. - Flaws to upper margins of several pages, rarely touching the text. - An intriguing documentation of an unplanned visit to the New World. TBTK 10454. Özege 17908. Cf. Snowden, Accidental Turks in Brazil and Beyond. Kabacali, Gezi edebiyati seçkisi (2004). Not in OCLC, Weber, or Cox.
|
|
|
Farissol, Abraham ben Mordecai.
[Igeret orhot shalem], id est, Itinera mundi, sic dicta nempe cosmographia. Oxford, Sheldonian Theatre, 1691.
4to. (16), 196 pp. (With:) Bobowski, Wojciech / Hyde, Thomas. Tractatus Alberti Bobovii Turcarum Imp. Mohammedis IVti olim interpretis primarii, de Turcarum liturgia, peregrinatio Meccana, circumcisione, aegrotorum visitatione etc. Ibid., 1690. (2), 31, (1) pp. Marbled half calf with giltstamped title to spine. Top edge gilt. First Latin edition of the cosmographical and geographical work of Abraham Farissol, first published in Hebrew in 1586. Includes the Hebrew text together with the Latin translation by Thomas Hyde and copious notes, including sections in Arabic. Farissol incorporated accounts of Portuguese and Spanish exploration including the New World and Vasco da Gama's voyage to India. Also includes a contemporary work on Turkish liturgy and the pilgrimage to Mecca by Wojciech Bobowski, a renegade Pole employed as a teacher, interpreter and musician at the Ottoman court of Mahomet IV. Composed at the behest of Thomas Smith (1683-1719) during his tenure as chaplain to the English ambassador at Constantinople, the manuscript was bought back to England and translated into Latin by Hyde. - Binding rubbed and chafed, otherwise in good condition. Auboyneau 265 (p. 34). Wing F438. Sabin 60934. Steinschneider 4222 no. 2. Fürst I, 276. Not in Blackmer or Atabey.
|
|
|
Ferrand, Gabriel.
Introduction à l'astronomie nautique arabe. Paris, Paul Geuthner, 1928.
4to. (8), XII, 272 pp. With several illustrations in the text. Original printed wrappers. First edition. Important historical study on navigation in the early modern Muslim world, including extracts of the "Kitâb ül Muhit" by the Ottoman voyager Seydi Ali Reis (1498-1563) in English translation. Further, it comprises French commentaries on the works of the Arab navigators Sulaiman Al Mahri (1480-1550) and Ahmad ibn Majid (ca. 1432-1500), the latter long considered the pilot of Vasco da Gama. Also discusses nautical instruments used by the Arabs, the practices of the native mariners of the Coromandel coast in navigating, sailing and repairing their vessels, Madras artillery, and the origin of the wind rose, as well as the invention of the compass. The present volume was produced as the first of the "Bibliothèque des Géographes Arabes" series published under the direction of the French orientalist Ferrand. - In excellent condition, uncut and untrimmed as issued. OCLC 459543616.
|
|
|
Findlay, Alexander George.
A Directory for the Navigation of the Indian Ocean [...]. Second Edition. With Descriptions of its Coasts, Islands, etc., from the Cape of Good Hope to the Strait of Sunda and Western Australia, including also the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; the Winds, Monsoons, and Currents, and the Passages from Europe to its various Ports. London, Richard Holmes Laurie, 1870.
Large 8vo (170 x 255 mm). (2), VI, (2), VII-XXXVI, 639, 639a-h, 640-1110, (2) pp. With 15 (mostly folding) maps (many in colour) and numerous text ilustrations. Contemporary giltstamped cloth. Second, enlarged edition of this standard work, first published in 1866. An encyclopedic volume of over 1000 pages with a detailed index. The chapters include descriptions of the coasts and islands of the Cape Colony; coast of Kaffraria and Natal; Eastern Africa; Madagascar and the Mozambique Channel; the coast of Africa, between Cape Delgado and the Red Sea; the Red Sea, etc. - In particular, Findlay devotes much attention to the coasts of Arabia and onwards to the Arabian Gulf, providing rich detail about the port of Aden, navigating and anchoring around Ras Arah and Ghubbet Seylan, the population of Masirah Island, the climate of the Gulf and its threats to Western health, topography of the coastal settlements, information on the reefs and pearl banks, etc. The discussion of the Gulf ("Our acquaintance with the hydrography of the Persian Gulf is nearly perfect") includes intelligence on Sharjah ("Shargeh"), "the most important town on the coast", numbering 8,000 to 10,000 inhabitants, and on Dubai ("Debay"), "a large town of 5,000 or 6,000 inhabitants" standing "a little back from the shore" and "recognizable as being the last town on the coast, there being not a single date-tree or house from this all the way to Abu Thabi". The coast is described as "quite barren and uninhabited, throughout very low, with tufts of mangrove bush", and "so uniform in appearance that the smallest peculiarities are noted by the Arabs, and names given to them". Abu Dhabi ("Abothubbee") is noted as "the most populous town on the coast", containing "about 20,0000 inhabitants" and sending "600 boats to the pearl fishery. The chief is very friendly to the English. Cattle might be obtained here". - Binding rubbed; hinges split. Some foxing throughout as common; repeatedly annotated quite ungraciously by a 20th century hand in coloured ballpoint and broad felt-tip pen. A later edition (from Humphrey Winterton's library) commanded £720 at Sotheby's in 2003. Mill (Cat. of the RGS Library) 160. OCLC 217065553.
|
|
|
Fischer von Erlach, Johann Bernhard.
Entwurf einer historischen Architektur. In Abbildung unterschiedener berühmten Gebäude, des Alterthums und fremder Völcker. Leipzig, 1725.
Royal folio (540 x 410 mm). 5 volumes in 1. With engraved title-page, engr. dedication, 5 engr. half-titles and 86 engr. plates (3 folded, 1 map). Contemporary full calf with giltstamped red morocco label to richly gilt spine. All edges red. First edition of this splendid work, which was reprinted five times until 1742 (including an English edition). The first three volumes deal with historical and legendary monuments (among them the seven wonders of the ancient world as well as monuments of the "Arabs and the Turks"). The fourth volume is dedicated to buildings of Fischer von Erlach himself; the fifth volume shows vases and sarcophagi. - Binding slightly rubbed, some dampstaining near end, otherwise a fine, wide-margined and complete copy. Nebehay/Wagner 176. Ornamentstichslg. Berlin 2105. Fowler 121. Schlosser 438. Thieme/B. XII, 48. Millard III, 31. Kruft 205/687. Museum of Islamic Art, Hajj - The journey through art, p. 48f. (illustration).
|
|
|
Forbin, Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste.
Voyage dans le Levant en 1817 et 1818. Paris, de l'Imprimerie Royale, 1819.
Text vol. in 8vo and atlas in folio (670 x 503 mm). (4), 460 pp. (4), 65 pp. Half-titles in both vols.; 80 lithographed, sepia aquatint or engraved plates and plans, the 8 fine aquatints by Debucourt after Forbin, the lithographed subjects for G. Engelmann after Lecomte, Deseynes, Castellan, Carle, and Horace Vernet, Fragonard, Thiénon, Legros, Isabey and others, large folding engraved plan at the end of text vol. 19th century marbled half calf with giltstamped title to gilt spine. First edition. Only 325 copies of this work were produced. "Forbin's was one of the first important French books to use lithography on a grand scale, and the standard of production is equal to that of Napoléon's 'Description de l'Egypte' or Denon's 'Voyage'" (Navari, Blackmer). Forbin succeeded Denon as director of museums in 1816 and was authorised to purchase antiquities for the Louvre (his son-in-law, Marcellus, expedited the acquisition of the recently discovered Venus de Milo). In August 1817 he began a year-long journey to the Levant accompanied by the artist Pierre Prévost and the engineer de Bellefonds. His journey took him to Melos, Athens, Constantinople, Smyrna, Ephesus, Acre, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Cairo, Luxor, and Thebes. - This set includes the frequently lacking 8vo text volume: this has the plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre bound at the end with a list of plates which were sold separately. The atlas volume repeats the text (entirely reset in-folio, sometimes found in a separate folio volume) and includes the magnificent, highly desirable plates (after Carle Vernet, Fragonard, Isabey, and Forbin himself, as well as Prevost), which show fine views of Greece, the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, Ramla, Gaza, and Egypt. - Occasional slight foxing, still a splendid copy from the library of the ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes, on pastedown. The Aboussouan copy (comprising both the folio and the octavo volume) commanded £20,000 at Sotheby's in 1993, while in 2002 the Atabey copy of the folio volume alone fetched £22,000. Atabey 447f. Blackmer 614. Aboussouan 338. Weber I, 68-70. Röhricht 1660. Tobler 144f. Colas 1089. Hiler 321. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 163. Brunet II, 1337. Graesse II, 614. Cf. Lipperheide Ma 16 (2nd ed.).
|
|
|
Frith, Francis.
Egypt and Palestine. Photographed and described. London, James S. Virtue, [1858-1859].
2 vols. Folio (328 x 447 mm). (8) pp.; (4) pp. of text; a total of 76 photographs on plates by Francis Frith (sizes ca. 145-165 x 215-230 mm), each with a separate leaf of text. Contemporary red morocco, spines and covers gilt. Marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. First edition of this important and early photobook on the Near East. During the years 1856-59, Frith (1822-98) made three visits to Egypt and the Holy Land; this selection of his photographs, from wet-collodion 9 x 7 negatives taken with an 8-by-10 inch camera, was published in 25 fascicles of 3 prints each, a work hailed as "one of the most renowned nineteenth-century photobooks" (The Photobook). Most of these images are dated 1857 either in the plate or the printed caption. They include a portrait of the artist in oriental costume and views of Abu Simbel, Aswan, Baalbek, Bethlehem, Damascus, Giza, Hebron, Jerusalem, Karnak, Luxor, Nazareth, Philae, Tiberias, Wadi Kardassy etc. The preliminaries of vol. 1 include title, introduction, table of contents, and subscribers, those of vol. 2 encompass title and contents. Each plate is accompanied by a full-page letterpress description. "Francis Frith is undoubtedly one of the best-known photographers to work in the Near East. His trips to the Levant were a brilliant commercial success as well as an artistic one" (Perez 163). - Some foxing to blank margins, as well as to a few photographs. Modern bookplate of the German anthropologist Jasper Köcke. Bindings very slightly rubbed, but hinges somewhat brittle; unobtrusive chafe-mark to upper cover of vol. 2. Overall a fine, appealingly bound copy. The Photobook I, 28. Blackmer 1942. Hannavy 561. Gernsheim, History 286. Perez, Focus East 165. Van Haaften-White XII & XV.
|
|
|
Fürer von Haimendorf, Christoph.
Itinerarium Aegypti, Arabiae, Palaestinae, Syriae, aliarumque Regionum Orientalium. Nuremberg, Abraham Wagenmann, (1620-)1621.
Small 4to. (16), 118, (10), (104) pp. With fine engraved portrait of the author after Peter Issel to verso of title, engraved armorial device to verso of dedication f., 6 folding engraved plates, and woodcut printer's device to imprimatur f. at end. Contemporary limp vellum. First edition, second issue (with title dated 1621). The first complete copy since the Camille Aboussouan sale in 1993. This second issue has two more plates than the first. "Fürer [...] travelled extensively from 1563-66, first in Italy and then to the Ionian Islands, Egypt and Palestine. The work is concerned with the latter, though Fürer does provide some information on Corfu, Zakynthos, Crete and Cyprus. He is the first to give a description of Vesalius's tomb on Zakynthos" (Blackmer). - "Mons Calvarius" plate trimmed just within border at foot; some (mostly light) waterstaining to lower margins, mostly light marginal foxing. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 995. VD 17, 23:247329C. Blackmer 640. Aboussouan 363. Weber II, 191. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 249. Gay 53. Tobler 70. Graesse II, 643. Brunet II, 1417 ("volume rare et assez recherché").
|
|
|
Galland, Julien Claude.
Sammlung von den Gebräuchen und Ceremonien der Wallfarth nach Mecca nebst verschiedenen Schriften welche die Religion die Wissenschaften und die Sitten der Türken betreffen. Nuremberg, George Peter Monath, 1757.
8vo. (16), 191, (1) pp. Contemporary black marbled wrappers. Rare first German edition of Galland's "Recueil des rits et cérémonies du pelerinage de la Mecque" (1754). Galland's account of the rituals surrounding the pilgrimage to Mekkah includes enlightening description of many of the important shrines and sites within the city. Extensive footnotes describe the history and physical appearance of such features as the Kaaba, the Black Stone, and Mount Ararat, as well as explaining relevant Arabic terms and the importance of certain religious figures in the Islamic tradition. The work also contains an extensive essay on the island of Chios, as well as a discussion of Ottoman science. "This very interesting work contains five separate essays. The first three are translations from Arabic and Turkish authorities; the last two are eye-witness accounts - one a long description of Chios and the other a description of the marriage of Sultana Esma with Yakub Pasha, governor of Silistria" (Navari). - Some occasional browning and foxing. Extremeties rubbed and bumped; untrimmed and uncut as issued. Not in Chauvin. Cf. Atabey 470. Blackmer 643.
|
|
|
Gastaldi, Giacomo.
Il disegno della seconda parte dell'Asia. Venice, G. Gastaldi, 1561.
Two sheets joined (470 x 740 mm to the neat line, full margins showing the plate mark, overall size 550 x 790 mm). An extraordinary example of "the first modern map of the Arabian peninsula" (Al-Ankary), by far the best copy we have ever handled: the first issue of the first edition, a strong impression on thick white paper with excellent contrast and exceptionally broad margins. "L'opera è dedicata al mecenate Johann Jakob Fugger ... a firma Giacomo di Castaldi Piamonetse Cosmographo in Venetia" (Bifolco I, 380 for the first state of three). - Still the most sought-after map of the region, Gastaldi's two page wall-map served as a model for all further mapping of the peninsula until the 19th century. Gastaldi is regarded as "the most important 16th century Italian cartographer. His maps are very rare, as they were issued separately to order and were not part of an atlas" (Al-Qasimi, 1st ed., p. 23). Gastaldi used various sources including Portolan charts of the region drawn by the 16th-century Portuguese explorers. Many details, such as the coastline of the Arabian Gulf, certain coastal towns, or the peninsula of Qatar, are mapped and named for the first time. It is the most valuable of the early maps of the region. "Although the shape of the peninsula is distorted by modern standards, the Qatar peninsula and Bahrain are both shown - details that are missing on some maps produced up to almost 300 years later" (Stuart McMinn Catalogue). - The map covers the modern geographical areas of Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, part of Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and the west coast of India. The travels of Marco Polo, published in Ramusio's "Navigationi et viaggi", heavily influenced Gastaldi's geography of this map, which is considered far superior to all previous maps of Asia. Gastaldi was "cosmographer to the Venetian Republic, then a powerhouse of commerce and trade. He sought the most up to date geographical information available, and became one of the greatest cartographers of the 16th century" (Burden). - Old foliation in brown ink to the upper right margin. Spotless and with temoins on the right outer edge. An exceptionally fine example. Bifolco, I, 380f. Tibbetts 28. Karrow 30/91. Nordenskiold II, 130, 61. Couto/Bacqué-Grammont/Taleghani, Atlas Historique du Golfe Persique (2006), p. 132, no. 29 and p. 152. Tooley, Maps in Italian Atlases of the 16th Century, 54. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi (2nd ed.), p. 26 with 2 figs. Tooley, Dictionary II, 143.
|
|
|
[Gaudereau, Abbé Martin].
Relation des différentes espèces de peste que reconnoissent les orientaux, des précautions & des remedes qu'ils prennent pour en empêcher la communication & le progrès; et de ce que nous devons faire à leur exemple pour nous en préserver, & nous en guerir. Paris, Etienne Ganeau & Jacques Quillau, 1721.
12mo. 134, (6) pp. Contemporary red morocco, triple gilt filet on covers, central royal coat of arms, gilt edges. First edition. The priest Gaudereau (1663-1743) had gone to Persia in 1689 in the company of Bégnine Vachet, a director of the Seminary of Foreign Missions. Having arrived at Isfahan in late 1690, they joined François Sanson, another member of the Society of Foreign Missions sent by Louis XIV to the court of Shah Suleiman. After Sanson's departure in 1692, Gaudereau continued negotiations with Suleiman, after 1694 with Husayn. Having negotiated a military and commercial alliance between Persia and the French East India Company, he returned to Isfahan, which he quit for Europe in 1703. It was during this journey from Constantinople and Trabzon that in September 1704 he contracted the illness he describes in his book, which he based on his own experience, having miraculously survived. - Fine copy, bound for Philippe d'Orléans. From the library of Hyacinthe Théodore Baron (18th century engraved book plate). Blake 169. OCLC 495355672. Not in Waller or Wellcome.
|
|
|
General Staff, Israel Defense Forces.
Ha-mizrah ha-karov (The Near East). [Tel Aviv], Israel Defense Forces, General Staff, 1958.
960 x 820 mm. Colour-printed map (folded). Scale 1:4,700,000. A large map of the Middle East, produced by Israel's General Staff soon after the Suez Crisis, showing the Arabian Peninsula and adjoining countries with major roads, railroads, and petroleum pipelines. - A few tears to folds, but well preserved.
|
|
|
[Geomancy].
Curieuse und gantz neue Art zu Punctiren. Aus dem Arabischen ins Deutsche übersetzet von einem Liebhaber dieser Kunst. Leipzig, Groß, 1743.
8vo. (38), 97-144, (8) pp. Title-page printed in red and black. With engraved frontispiece and folding letterpress table. - Bound after this is a 10-page German manuscript by a contemporary hand in red and black ink, entitled "Continuatio curiosorum experimentorum collocatio". Modern half vellum with marbled covers and spine title. Edges sprinkled in red. Later edition of this oft-reprinted but rare manual of geomancy, a divination system with Arabian origins. The term is derived from the ancient Greek "geômanteía", a translation of the Arabic "'ilm al-raml" - the "science of the sand", or the art of foretelling from dots or lines randomly marked upon the ground or on paper. The method, probably developed in the Near and Middle East, arrived in mediaeval Europe via North Africa. In the European context it was seen as an ancillary science to astrology and was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. It was especially Robert Fludd's "Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia" (1618) that made geomancy popular in the late Renaissance. "Pointing, or geomancy, was among the most popular of the divinatory entertainments of the 17th and 18th century" (cf. Daxelmüller, Zauberpraktiken, p. 200, with fig. 35). Purportedly translated from Arabic, this manual cites Cornelius Agrippa, Henry de Pisis, Trithemius, and Fludd as its authorities. - The manuscript bound at the end of the volume treats of "Onomantia", or the so-called science of divining a person's future from their names - a method explicitly said to work not only with Christian names given at baptism, but also with any name bestowed by a similar process upon a Jew or Muslim. - Slightly browned, but well preserved. 1744 handwritten and stamped ownership of the Lieutenant Christoph Carl König on title page, with his initials and date at the head of the instructions to the reader. Graesse (Bibl. Mag. et Pneum.) 105. Not in Ackermann, Caillet, Dorbon-Aine, Rosenthal, etc.
|
|
|
Haci Pasha.
Teshil ("Facilitation"). Ottoman medical manual. Central or Eastern Anatolia, [28 April 1408 CE] = 1 Du'l-Higga 810 H.
8vo (155 x 204 mm). Ottoman manuscript on laid paper. 134 pp. on 68 ff., written space ca. 90 x 140-145 mm. 15 lines, per extensum, written in a heavily Persian-influenced naskh style in black ink, gilt ("taddib") section titles, rubricated and sometimes written in gilt for emphasis, no catchwords, but extensively vocalized Turkish text with Arabic diacritics. Gilt gadval borders around introductory double page, remainder of text within double red rules. Frequent marginalia and occasional glosses, with some prayers and charms. Early full leather binding with fore-edge flap, spine and flap hinges reinforced with later leather. Complete Ottoman medical manuscript, copied by the scribe Celalu'd-din Mehmud al-'Ala'i in 1408 CE, still during the lifetime of the book's author, the Anatolian religious scholar and physician Haci Pasha (known in the Arabic tradition as Haggi Basha Galalu'd-Din al-Hidr bin 'Ali bin al-Hattab al-Aydini). - The introduction (1v-2r) sets out the work's content and structure, presented, with Arabic technical terms adopted into Turkish, as a compendium ("muhtasar") and facilitation ("teshil") of medical knowledge, offering a discussion of definitions, medical practices, the administration of solids and liquids, and a description of diseases with their symptoms and related therapies. The following sections treat dietary matters including regimens for exercise ("hereket"), meals ("gazalar"), hot baths ("hammamlar") and vomiting ("istifrag"), as well as self-medication (4v-15v), fevers ("buhran", 16r-17r), and the therapeutic and prophylactic properties of various foods (17v-26r). The third and by far the most extensive section (26r-67r) provides definitions and summary descriptions of the most common ailments with their aetiologies (proceeding from symptomological analysis, "alamet") and treatments. A single final page (67v) entitled "Kitabu'l-Ihtilac" ("Book of attraction or palpitations") contains apotropaic phrases to be pronounced over the patient and a short poem in 11 couplets, followed by the four-line colophon (68r). - Haci Pasha was a famous 14th century physician from Anatolia who moved to Cairo, then the thriving capital of Mamluk Egypt, to refine his medical knowledge during what is today regarded as the beginning of the most famous period of Ottoman medicine. The present treatise enjoyed significant success for many decades and directly influenced the work of one of the most renowned Ottoman physicians of the 15th century, Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu (1385-1468), who composed the first surgical atlas in Ottoman Turkish. - Margins somewhat fingerstained in places with a light waterstain throughout, but generally very well preserved.
|
|
|
[Hajj manuscript].
The rituals of the Hajj. [Ottoman Empire], [1721/22 CE =] 1134 H.
8vo (144 x 202 mm). Ottoman manuscript on paper. 122 pp., 13 lines, single column. Black ink with occasional red and blue. With a double-page illustration. Contemporary full brown calf with fore-edge flap and blindstamped ornaments to both covers. An Ottoman Turkish manuscript on the Hajj, describing the rituals of the pilgrimage and the traditional travel route from Turkey through the Levant to Medina and Mekkah. The book includes a rough, annotated drawing of the Prophet’s Mosque and a drawing of the Grand Mosque. - Some edge flaws and tears; occasional waterstains, mainly confined to the wide margins. Early 19th century waqf stamp to the flyleaf. A well-preserved survival.
|
|
|
[Hakluyt Society].
The complete series of the first 200 works issued by the Hakluyt Society. London, for the Hakluyt Society, 1847-1958.
8vo (220 x 150 mm). 210 volumes in 212, comprising a complete run of the first series (vols. 1-100) and second series, part 1 (vols. 1-110). Illustrated. Original green and blue cloth, spines gilt, with giltstamped motif of the ship "Victoria" on the upper covers. A primary reference work on the history of travel and exploration, including the principal accounts of the great voyages to the Middle East. This is a complete run of the first series and a large part of the second series (with its first part complete), dating from 1847 to 1956, of the publications of the Hakluyt Society. Early volumes of interest to the student of the exploration of the Muslim world, but also of the world's exploration by Muslims, include the travels of Abd-er-Razzak (India in the 15th Century, vol. 22, 1857), the travels of Ludovico de Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix (vol. 32, 1863), and the History of the Imâms and Seyyids of 'Omân by Salîl-ibn-Razîk (vol. 44, 1871, providing the first indigenous account of the history of Oman in English), as well as the travels to Tana and Persia, by Josafa Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini (with a Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and 16th Centuries, vols. 49a and 49b, 1873). The "Commentarios" of Afonso de Albuquerque, the first European to enter the Arabian Gulf, are present in a careful edition from 1875ff. (vols. 53, 55, 62, and 69), while the early 15th century narrative of the "Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, and Africa" is the first account by a western Christian to state the true burial place of Muhammad, at Medina. Volumes 72 and 73 (1886) contain accounts of early voyages and travels to Persia, while vols. 84 and 85 (1892) offer the famous "Travels of Pietro della Valle in India". Volume 87 (1893) is a collection of "Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant"; vols. 92 and 93 (1896) constitute the famous description of Africa by Al-Hassan Ibn-Mohammed Al-Wezaz Al-Fasi, also known as Leo Africanus. In the second series, vol. 9 (1901) gives the "Travels of Pedro Teixeira, with his 'Kings of Harmuz', and Extracts from his 'Kings of Persia'"; vol. 16 (1905) is the journal of John Jourdain, 1608-17, describing his experiences in Arabia; John Fryer's "New Account of East India and Persia" (covering his travels made in 1672-81) is given in vols. 19, 20 and 39 (1909-15). Ibn Batuta's great travels are contained in vol. 41 (1916) and 110 (1956), while the itinerary of Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese official in India from 1500 to 1516 (vols. 44 & 49, 1918-21), includes accounts of Mecca and Medina, the ports of Jeddah and Aden, the Arab kingdom of Hormuz, and the islands in the Arabian Gulf (with reference to pearl-diving). The 1496 pilgrimage of Arnold von Harff to Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, and Turkey is given in vol. 94 (1946), while the following volume recounts the travels of the Abbé Carré in Syria, Iraq and the Gulf region, 1672 to 1674 (1947). - Founded in London in 1846, the aim of the still-thriving Hakluyt Society is to "advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material". For 170 years the society has published an annual or bi-annual volume of original accounts of such voyages. Their historically significant texts and translations, often appearing in print for the first time, are fully annotated, well illustrated with maps and plates, and conform to the highest standards of scholarship. As such they often represent the last word on the material they embrace, and are widely valued by historians and geographers throughout the world. Full complete sets of the publication are only held in institutional libraries, and this is the largest run to have appeared in the trade in over 40 years. - Some spines and covers chipped or repaired; library marks on spine. Provenance: The Western Reserve Historical Society Library (bookplates).
|
|
|
Hamilton, Alexander.
A New Account of the East Indies. Giving an exact and copious description of the situation, product, manufactures, laws, customs, religion, trade, etc. of all the countries and islands, which lie between the Cape of Good Hope, and the Island of Japon. London, C. Hitch & A. Millar, 1744.
8vo. 2 vols. XXXII, 400 pp. VII, (1), 320 pp. With a total of 8 folding maps and 11 plates as called for. Contemporary full calf with giltstamped red labels to gilt spine. Second London edition of this important work, first published in Edinburgh in 1727, "which remains to this day one of the most valuable first-hand histories of English merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean and East Indies" (Howgego). It covers "the whole of the Orient" (Hill) from Ethiopia to Japan and is very strong on India (some 20 chapters, not counting Bengal, which is described separately), but also includes an extensive section on the Arabian Peninsula: chapter IV "gives a little description of the coast of Arabia the Happy, from Mount Sinai to Mocha, with some observations on the religion, customs and laws"; chapter V "gives a description of the Immaum of Mocha's country, particularly its situation, laws, customs and commerce"; chapter VI "contains a description of Aden [...], also an account of the sea-coast of Arabia petraea, as far as Muskat and Bassora", chapter VII "treats of the kingdom and city of Muskat, and of their religious and civil customs [...] and a little account of the sea-coast of Arabia deserta, as far as Bassora", while chapter VIII "gives an account of Bassora City, and that part of Arabia deserta". Includes a rough, but apparently original map of the Gulf, showing "Barreen Island", "Cape Mussendon", and little detail along the Peninsula's northeastern coast in between save for a place labelled "Zoar", here not indicating Sohar in Oman but clearly referencing the area of the present-day Emirate of Sharjah (even Niebuhr's 1765 map still shows a town named "Seer" - Sir, Julfar - opposite the island of "Scharedsje"). The text mentions the region's trade in horses and pearls, stating, "There are no towns of note between Muskat and Bassora, but Zoar, and but very few inconsiderable villages; but there are two or three pretty convenient harbours for shipping. The southernmost is about 6 leagues to the southward of Cape Mosenden, called Courfacaun. It is almost like Muskat Harbour, but somewhat bigger, and has excellent fresh water from deep wells, about a quarter of a mile from the landing place. The village contains about twenty little houses; yet there are pretty good refreshments to be had there [...]". - In India, Gujarat and Bombay are covered particularly extensively, and the illustrations include not only a detailed coastline map of the subcontinent, but also several plates showing Ganesha, the elephant-headed god; a religious procession involving an elaborate wheeled scaffold from which men are hung; the temple of Jagannath; and the notorious "Juggernaut" car. - The Scottish captain Hamilton went to sea, in his own words "very young", in 1688, and travelled as far as the Barbary coast before basing himself in Surat and trading and travelling all over the Indian Ocean, "visiting, it is said, every port between the Cape and Canton" (Howgego). He made a reputation for himself as a foul-mouthed, resourceful and bold operator fending off Baluchi robbers, treacherous governors and Indian pirates. - Bindings professionally repaired. Light browning and occasional waterstaining; a few pencil annotations. Provenance: from the collection of the American diplomat Alexander Weddell (1876-1948) and his wife Virginia Chase Steedman Weddell (1874-1948); deaccessioned from the Virginia House Museum, Richmond (handwritten ownership "A. & V. Weddell, 1924, Calcutta" to flyleaves; bookplate to pastedowns). Alt-Japan 630. Howgego I, p. 477, H13. Cf. Macro 1115. Goldsmiths' 6522. Hanson 3724. Cordier, Indosinica 890. The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages (2004) 765.
|
|
|
Hasan, Hadi.
A History of Persian Navigation. London, Methuen (printed in Cambridge by W. Lewis, at the University Press), (1928).
4to (210 x 268 mm). XIV, 176 pp. With 2 colour-printed plates (one bound as a frontispiece) and 9 plates in monotone. Publisher's original blue cloth with gilt title to spine, upper cover stamped in gilt and blind. Top edge gilt. A history of Persian navigation and trade from the earliest times to the sixteenth century. First edition, on hand made paper, one of 250 signed copies (but number and signature erased). With a preface by Muhammad Iqbal. - The Indian scholar Hadi Hasan (1894-1963), a native of Hyderabad, was educated at Cambridge in geology, botany, and chemistry. "On his return to India he played an active role in the freedom movement against British rule and was praised for his work for independence by Mahatma Gandhi" (Encyclopedia Iranica). He subsequently completed a Ph.D. in Persian at the University of London before being "appointed professor and head of the Department of Persian at Aligarh Muslim University, a position he held until 1958" (ibid.). - Occasional insignificant fingerstains; slight paper flaw to title-page from erasure of the number. Binding rubbed and faded, extremeties a little bumped, but well-preserved on the whole. Wilson 88. Encyclopedia Iranica XI, 436f. OCLC 4517880.
|
|
|
Hay, Rupert.
The Persian Gulf States and Their Boundary Problems. Reprinted from the Geographical Journal, Vol. CXX, Part 4, December 1954. London, The Royal Geographical Society, 1954.
8vo. (433)-445, (1) pp. With a map in the text. Original printed wrappers. Inscribed by the author. Includes an autograph letter signed by the author (Weymouth, 20 Feb. 1955, 2 pp. 8vo). Rare presentation offprint of this geographical description of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the seven Trucial Sheikhdoms which today form the United Arab Emirates, and their boundary issues in the early 1950s. Signed and inscribed "To Edward + Irene Skinner with compliments" (20 Feb. 1955). Includes an autograph letter signed by Sir Rupert to "Dear Edward" accompanying the presentation offprint: "I enclose a copy of a recent paper of mine which you may be interested to see. I have finished the first draft of my book on the Persian Gulf but still have a good deal of revising to do [...]."
|
|
|
Hay, Sidney.
Air Over Eden. London, Hutchinson & Co., 1937.
4to. 292, (18) pp. With one folding map. Original giltstamped cloth. First edition, second impression. - Beautifully illustrated travelogue of Iraq's landscapes, peoples and antiquities, including numerous striking views from the air, including the Persian Gulf route via Muscat and Bahrain. The book emphasises Iraq's strategic importance following the recent completion of the Iraq Petroleum Company's pipeline from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean, and the RAF's role in defending it. - With ms. ownership "Thomas Greenwood. June 1937" to front flyleaf.
|
|
|
Heber-Percy, Algernon.
Argob and Bashan. Moab and Gilead. Photographs from Syria and Jordan. Syria & Jordan, 1894-1895.
Folio (ca. 490 x 610 mm). (86 + 88 =) 174 large black-and-white photographs (14 ca. 95 x 120 mm, the rest ca. 250 x 300 mm). Mounted on cardboard leaves on cloth tabs. Handwritten English captions throughout. Bound for the photographer in two monumental full red morocco albums with giltstamped titles to upper covers. All edges gilt. Two monumental albums with photographs from travels undertaken to Bashan, Argob, Moab and Gilead, presently Jordanian and Syrian territories, in the years 1894-95. Mounted on the album leaves are 174 photographs taken by the British officer Algernon Heber-Percy (1845-1911), recording two of his expeditions to the Levant. Most of the photographs show archaeological sites, ancient ruins, structures, Druze and Bedouin villages and the residents of the villages that Heber-Percy visited in the course of his travels. - The first album, entitled "Argob and Bashan", contains 86 photographs of sites that are today in Syrian territory, specifically Trachonitis, Bashan and Jabal al-Druze, which the photographer visited together with his spouse and two sons in 1894. The sites include villages in the Trachonitis region (the Lajat) as well as in the cities of Qanawat, As-Suwayda, Bosra and other cities, and the road from Damascus to Beirut. The album also includes photographs of the region's Druze inhabitants. - The second album, entitled "Moab and Gilead", contains 88 photographs from sites that are today in Jordanian territory, visited by the photographer in 1895, including Beth Ba'al Ma'on, Dhiban, Umm ar-Rasas, Amman, Salt (Al-Salt) and Jerash. The album also includes photographs of the region's Bedouin inhabitants and three photographs showing a travelling circus of trained animals (a monkey, a goat and a bear) encountered by the photographer in the Madaba area. Heber-Percy also published on the expeditions recorded in these photographs: his account of his travels appeared in two books, "A Visit to Bashan and Argob" (London, 1895) and "Moab Ammon and Gilead" (1896), and some of the photographs in the albums were reproduced in these books. - Bound for the owner by Bennion & Horne, Market Drayton (their label to pastedown). Some foxing, mainly confined to flyleaves; occasional slight edge flaws. Bindings slightly scuffed at the extremeties, but in all a finely preserved, impressive set.
|
|
|
[Hejaz Railway].
[Map and Profile of the Hijaz Railway Route]. Constantinople, Matba a-i Bahriye, [1904 CE =] 1320 Rumi.
Colour lithograph map, 765 x 495 mm, trimmed to neat line. A rare separately issued official map, with text in Ottoman Turkish throughout, depicting the route of the Hejaz Railway. Following a route proposed by the eminent Turkish engineer Mukhtar Bey and surveyed by the cavalry officers Umar Zaki and Hasan Mu'ayyin, the epic project, funded by subscriptions from the global Islamic faithful, completed a rail link from Damascus to Medina by 1908. Intended to continue to Mecca but never completed, it nevertheless briefly allowed many thousands of pilgrims to make the Hajj in relative comfort. - Old folds and creases, some short closed tears, tiny chips to neat line, some light staining. Some remnants of tape and old private collector's stamps to verso. Still in good condition but for partial loss of lower left corner, subsequently collaged with a contemporary Ottoman colour lithographed map of the Arabian Peninsula.
|
|
|
Hermalin, D[avid] M[oyshe].
Muhamad. A shtudium fun dem ershaynen, leben und thetigkayt fun dem Musulmanishen gezets-geber un die rezultaten fun zayn religyon. New York, M[eir] Chinsky, 19 Ludlow Street, (1898).
8vo. 64 pp. Contemporary marbled boards with title clipped from the original upper wrapper and pasted on the upper cover; lower wrapper cover bound within. Cloth spine. First edition of this Yiddish-language study of the Prophet Muhammad. Includes not only a biography of the Prophet and a discussion of the Qur'an and of Islam, but also chapters with a specifically Jewish perspective, such as on the Jewish population of Arabia (especially in Mecca and Medina), on Muhammad's "dreadful revenge on the Jews", etc. The author published similar accounts on Jesus of Nazareth ("Yeyshu Hanoytsri: zayn ersheynen, leben und toydt: algemeyner iberblik vegen der entshtehung fun kristenthum") and Sabbatai Zevi ("Der Terkisher Meshieh: a historish romantishe shilderung iber dem leben und virken fun Shabtay Tsvi"). The highly versatile journalist, novelist, and playwright D. M. Hermalin (1865-1921) was born and educated in Bucharest, where he worked for various newspapers before being compelled to leave Romania and emigrating to the United States at the age of twenty. Here, he taught French and Hebrew and achieved distinction as a much-admired family page editor for Yiddish newspapers such as the "Folks Advokat", the "Yiddisher Herold", and the "Wahrheit". He wrote thrillers, but also translated Tolstoy, Maupassant, Zola, Bocaccio, and Shakespeare into Yiddish; his 1901 translation of Goethe's "Faust" was the first complete Yiddish version. - Binding severely rubbed; extremeties bumped. Paper browned and brittle with noticeable fingerstaining. The lower wrapper cover, preserved inside the boards, has an English title: "Mohammed. A Study Of the Advent, Life and Activity of the Mussulman Law-Giver and the Results of his Religion", with the publisher's advert of books on sale ("oysferkoyf katalog fun mayn aygenem ferlag") on the reverse. Extremely rare: no copy in trade records; online library catalogues list copies at YIVO, Yale, Harvard, University of California, and Florida Atlantic University, as well as the British Library; several research libraries in the US hold microform copies. OCLC 122740986.
|
|
|
Receive by email
Download as PDF document
RSS feed
Permanent link
