‎Golf‎

‎Slatin-Pascha, Rudolf von, administrator in the Sudan, politician, and adventurer (1857-1932).‎

‎4 autograph letters signed ("R. Slatin"). [Probably Merano], 1930.‎

‎Large 4to. Altogether 6 pp. on 4 ff. In German, to a "dear doctor and friend": "[...] I should like to see you and your dear wife again before my departure [...]" (letter of 12 April; with punched holes in left margin [not touching text]). - "I arrived here 3 days ago after 4 weeks in Bad Hall - without any noticeable results [...]" (letter of 3 September). - "I took Anne Marie from Fetan, where she spent the summer, back to St. Blasien. She has not had the care she needs, but looks well altogether and is happy, though I am not [...]" (letter of 28 September). - "Thank you for your kind letter; I hope that you and your dear wife will do me the honour of dining with me on Saturday at 1 PM [...]" (letter of 6 October). - On stationery with printed address.‎

‎[Slave Trade].‎

‎Class D. Correspondence with Foreign Powers, Not Parties to Conventions Giving Right of Search of Vessels Suspected of the Slave Trade. From June 1st to December 31st, 1839, inclusive. London, William Clowes and sons, 1840.‎

‎Folio. (III)-XI, (1), 213, (1) pp. Modern blue wrappers with cover label. Includes the extract of an 1839 letter to Viscount Palmerston regarding the slave trade between Zanzibar and Muscat and negotiations for the suppression of the slave trade there, reprinting Article XV of the Treaty entered into by His Highness the Sultan of Muscat, and with intelligence on the profits accruing to the Imaum from slavery. - Paginated "221-443" by a contemporary hand. Well-preserved.‎

‎Snape, Andrew.‎

‎The Anatomy of an Horse. London, Miles Flesher for Thomas Fletcher, 1683.‎

‎Folio (243 x 367 mm). (12), 237, (1), 45, (7) pp. With engr. portrait of the author by R. White and 48 (of 49) engraved plates (lacking plate I). Contemporary calf with modern morocco label to gilt spine. First edition. Andrew Snape served as serjeant farrier to King Charles II. In his dedication to the king, he speaks of "being a Son of that Family that hath had the honour to serve the Crown of this Kingdom in the Quality of Farriers for these two Hundred Years." It is this classic work on which François Garsault was to base his 1734 "Anatomie Générale du Cheval". - Some brownstaining; some leaves with repaired tears, binding repaired. With armorial bookplate with cipher of George Simon Harcourt, Earl Harcourt (1736-1809) on front pastedown. Huth 26. Mellon 31. Wing S4382. ESTC R-14873. Nissen ZBI, 3887. OCLC 29155938. Cf. Mennessier de la Lance I, 526.‎

‎Strabo.‎

‎En tibi lector studiose Strabonis geographicorum co[m]me[n]tarios, olim a Guarino Veronese, & Gregorio Trifernate latinitate donatus, iam vero denuo a Conrado Heresbachio ad fidem graeci exemplaris [...] recognitos. Basel, (Valentin Curio), (March) 1523.‎

‎Folio (220 x 325 mm). (36), 566, (2) pp. With woodcut title border by J. Faber after Hans Holbein, 2 additional borders, printer's device, and numerous initials. Blindstamped limp leather on four raised bands. Early Latin translation of the geography of Strabo, who had visited Egypt and sailed up the Nile in 25 BC. - Even in the introductory chapters, Strabo provides important details on the Arabian Peninsula: "Adjoining the Ethiopians, a needy and nomad race, is Arabia: one part of which is distinguished above all other lands by the title of Felix [i.e., Hedjaz and Nejd-ed-Ared], and the other, though not dignified by that name, is both generally believed and also said to be pre-eminently blessed. Though Homer knew of Arabia Felix, at that time it was by no means wealthy, but a wild country, the inhabitants of which dwelt for the most part in tents. It is only a small district which produces the aromatics from which the whole territory afterwards received its name, owing to the rarity of the commodity amongst us, and the value set upon it. That the Arabians are now flourishing and wealthy is due to their vast and extended trade" (p. 30f.); "Arabia Felix is bounded by the entire Arabian and Persian Gulfs, together with all the country of the tent-dwellers and the Sheikh-governed tribes. [...] Beside the ocean the country is tolerably fitted for habitation of man, but not so the centre of the country: this for the most part is barren, rugged sand desert. The same applies to the country of the Troglodytic Arabians and the part occupied by the fish-eating tribes" (p. 90f.) Furthermore, chapters 15 and 16 are devoted entirely to the Orient (chapter 16 on Arabia in particular), while the final chapter 17 discusses Egypt and Libya. - The fine title border shows King Solomon among the philosophers and poets of Greco-Roman antiquity; at the bottom, the Nine Muses lay a wreath on the head of Homer. Occasional insignificant brownstaining. The uncommon binding is slightly rubbed; some edge defects professionally restored. Title page has contemporary ms. ownership of the classical scholar Johannes Lyresius from Kleve, professor of Greek at Ingolstadt from 1568 onwards. A few marginalia and underlinings by his and later hands. VD 16, S 9346. Hoffmann III, 457. Schweiger I, 304. Cf. Macro 2148 (only later English translations).‎

‎Thorn, W. & F.‎

‎W. & F. Thorn Carriage Pattern Book. London, [ca. 1867].‎

‎Oblong 8vo (250 x 150 mm). Ornate lithograph title page and 38 plates in original hand colour, some parts varnished with albumin. Original full brown morocco stamped in gilt and blind. All edges gilt. 38 stunningly hand-coloured plates of coaches in various styles, ranging from the plainest to the most elaborate and luxurious. The first two plates depict horses, a pair and a single horse, harnessed respectively to pull the coaches. The imagery is rich and vibrant; the binding is tight. - William Thomas Thorn (1819-81) and his brother Frederick (1822-82?) continued the prestigious family coachbuilding concern founded by their father Willliam in 1824. Upper board with gilt royal coat of arms and title "W. & F. Thorn Coach Builders & Harness Makers, by Special Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen" within a gilt geometric and floral border with embossed corner pieces. Lower board with same border design but all embossed. Expertly rebacked retaining the original spine; endpapers renewed. Rubbing and slight chipping along edges; occasional foxing, mostly affecting tissue guards. A scarce item, with no copies located on OCLC or COPAC.‎

‎Varthema, Lodovico di.‎

‎Die Ritterlich und lobwürdig reiß [...] Sagend von den landen, Egypto, Syria, von beiden Arabia Persia, India und Ethiopia, von den gestalten, sitten, und dero menschen leben und glauben. Strasbourg, Johann Knobloch, 1516.‎

‎4to. 226 pp. (A8, B-C4, D8, E-F4, G8, H-J4, K8, L-M4, N8, O-P4, Q8, R-S4, T6, V4, X7, without the final blank). With title woodcut and 47 woodcuts in the text (including 1 full-page illustration). - (Bound after) II: Giovio, Paolo. Libellus de legatione Basilii Magni principis Moschoviae ad Clementem VII. Pontificem Max. in qua situs regionis antiquis incognitus, religio gentis, mores, & causae legationis fidelissime referuntur. Basel, [J. Froben], 1527. 39, (1) pp. With woodcut printer's device to t. p. - (Bound after) III: Fabri (of Leutkirch), Johann. Ad serenissimum principem Ferdinandum Archiducem Austriae, Moscovitarum iuxta mare glaciale religio. Basel, J. Bebel, 1526. 18 ff. - (Bound after) IV: Ricoldo (da Monte di Croce). Contra sectam Mahumeticam libellus. (Georgius de Hungaria). De vita & moribus Turcorum. Carben, Victor de. Libellus de vita et moribus Iudaeorum (ed. J. Lefèvre). Paris, H. Estienne, 1511. 86 ff. With large woodcut in the text and several woodcut initials. - (Bound after) V: Ficinus, Marsilio. De religione Christiana & fidei pietate opusculum. Xenocrates de morte, eodem interprete. Strasbourg, J. Knobloch, 1507. 90 ff. With woodcut printer's device on final page. - (Bound after) VI: Haythonus (Hatto). Liber historiarum partium orientis, sive passagium terrae sanctae scriptus anno Redemptoris nostri M.CCC. Hagenau, J. Setzer, 1529. 71 ff. With woodcut title border and device on final page. Contemp. wooden boards with wide blindstamped leather spine and 2 brass clasps. The first illustrated edition (in its second issue) of one of the most famous early travel reports and the first Western encounter with the Arab world. Of the utmost rarity; not a single copy could be traced on the market for the past sixty years; not a single copy in the USA (cf. OCLC). - The "Itinerario" contains the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates: on his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. - All early editions of Varthema’s “Itinerario” are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1654 reprint; cf. below). This - the first illustrated one - is certainly the rarest of them all: international auction records list not a single copy. The 1510 editio princeps was offered for US$ 1 million at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair in April 2011. - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jeddah and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information deemed noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a very documented stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - Bound with this work are five other 16th century imprints: II: Giovio's report on Russia is based on conversations with the Russian envoy Dimitry at the court of Pope Clement VII in Rome. - III: "The second printed book on Russia" (NUC), intelligence on Russia gathered by the later bishop of Vienna in Tübingen in 1525 from the envoy of the Grand Prince Ivan Vasilievitch. - IV: "Very rare anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic volume, of which this is the first edition to include the third tract by Victor de Carben" (Schreiber). Contains the report by Georgius de Hungaria, who was captured in 1438 during the siege of Mühlbach and was sold into Turkish slavery. Also includes the anti-Muslim treatise of Ricoldo (1242-1320) and the anti-Semitic pamphlet of Victor de Carben (1422-1515), a converted Rabbi from Cologne. - V: Fine Strasbourg humanist edition of two works by the great Neo-Platonist Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), including his 1474 apology of Christianity against Islam and Judaism. - VI: First Latin edition, edited by Menrad Molther, with his dedication to Georg von Morsum. The Armenian prince Haytho reached Poitiers in 1306 and there dictated his history of the Middle East since the first appearance of the Mongols. - Spine slightly rubbed; some browning, annotations and occasional worming. Ms. index of all works contained on front pastedown. Removed from the Donaueschingen court library with their stamps on first and final page. I: VD 16, ZV 15157. BM-STC 66. IA 113.543 (includes copies in BSB Munich and Wolfenbüttel). Benzing (Strasbourg) 100. Schmidt (Knobloch) 132. Ritter (IV) 932 & 2000. Muller 132, 170. Kristeller 383. Paulitschke 296. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 305. Röhricht 574. Cf. exhibition cat. “Hajj - The Journey Through Art” (Doha, 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2239 (other editions only). - II: BM-STC 360. VD 16, G 2081. Adelung I, 188 ("1537" in error). - III: BM-STC 294. VD 16, F 189. Adelung I, 185. - IV: BM-STC 317. Moreau 197. Renouard 9, 1. Göllner 48. Apponyi 78. Schreiber 11. - V: BM-STC 302. Adams F 416. VD 16, F 939. Ritter 838. The same, Catalogue, 978. Schmidt (Knobloch) 33. Muller 117, 29. - VI: BM-STC 403. VD 16, H 870. Adelung I, 119 (imprecise). Röhricht 176 (p. 66). Ritter 1090. The same, Catalogue, 1171. Burg 200. Benzing (Hagenau) 84, 107.‎

‎Warnery, [Charles-Emmanuel] de.‎

‎Remarques sur le militaire des Turcs et des Russes. Breslau, Wilhelm Theophil Korn, 1771.‎

‎8vo. 264 pp. With 3 folding engr. plates. Contemp. calf with giltstamped red label to gilt spine. Marbled endpapers. All edges red. Second, enlarged edition, published a year after the first and now including "diverses observations sur les grandes actions qui se sont passées dans la dernière guerre d’Hongrie, et dans la présente en Moldavie". This is the first work of the Swiss-born De Warnery (1720-86), published in a German translation as early as 1766 (purportedly against his own wishes): according to the author, never one to eschew self-aggrandizement, he was the first to "unmask the Turks" and show that they did not warrant the fear with which they were usually viewed (cf. ADB XLI, 176). The plates show suggestions for battle arrays. - Unobtrusive repairs to lower cover of the appealing binding. Variously browned and brownstained due to paper. Rare. Formerly in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer. Barbier IV, 257. Cf. Atabey 1321 (first ed. 1770). Not in Blackmer.‎

‎Wüstenfeld, Ferdinand.‎

‎Geschichte der Arabischen Ärzte und Naturforscher. Göttingen, (Friedrich Ernst Huth for) Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1840.‎

‎8vo. XVI, 167, (17) pp. Contemporary half calf with handwritten spine label. First edition. Selections from Arabic works on medicine and natural science in the original language appended with separate title page (in Arabic): extracts from the "Kitab tahdib al-asma", by Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Nawawi, "Kitab 'uyun alanba' fi tabaqat al-atibba'", by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, and "Tabaqat as-safiiyya", by Ibn Suhba. - The German orientalist H. F. Wüstenfeld (1808-99), considered one of the greatest literary historians of Arabic, studied theology and oriental languages at Göttingen and Berlin. He taught at Göttingen, becoming a professor there (1842-90), and published many important Arabic texts and valuable works on Arabic history. - Binding somewhat rubbed; some foxing. Old handwritten pencil notes to flyleaf; handwritten ownership to title. A good copy. Macro 2345. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 342.‎

‎Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste.‎

‎(Nouvelle relation de l'interieur du Serail du Grand Seigneur). Recueil de plusieurs relations et traitez singuliers & curieux. [Amsterdam], suivant la copie imprimée à Paris, 1679.‎

‎Small 8vo. (8), 564, (4) pp. With 2 folding engraved maps and 8 folding engr. plates; several woodcuts in the text. Wants the portrait found in some copies. Contemporary dark brown full calf with traces of oxydized giltstamping to spine and gilt leading edges. First Amsterdam reprint: Taviernier's description of the Ottoman Imperial Seraglio - his first published work, which had appeared separately as early as 1675 - here forms the final part of his "Recueil de plusieurs relations et traitez singuliers & curieux", an independent publication which was, from 1679 onwards, appended to the author's "Six voyages en Turquie, en Perse, et aux Indes" (thus ultimately forming that collection's third and final volume). It was this volume, containing Tavernier's studies in commercial politics, that made the author's travels widely known. The fine maps show Japan and Tonquin, the plates depict costumes, a theatre performance, temples, and various processions. A woodcut in the Seraglio section gives the Islamic profession of faith, the Shahada, in Arabic script. "Tavernier spent eleven months in Constantinople before setting out on his first journey. He joined a caravan for Persia in 1638 and, between 1643 and 1668, made six voyages to Persia, India, the East Indies and Japan. During his travels he amassed a large collection of diamonds and jewels. His successful commercial enterprise was recognised by Louis XIV and he was granted a patent of nobility for his contribution to the establishment of French trade in Asia. It was Tavernier who indicated the trade routes to the East and made it possible for others to follow him. According to Brunet, the 'Recueil' appears with all editions of the 'Six Voyages' printed after 1679" (Atabey). "It appears that much of his information on the Seraglio was obtained from two former employees of the Sultan, one a Frenchman, the other an Italian" (Blackmer). - Binding rubbed but tight; a tear to one map repaired. Slight browning throughout due to paper. A good copy. Graesse VI/2, 43. Goldsmiths' 2283. Willems 1937. Atabey 1201. Cf. Cordier, BJ 393. Laures 525.‎

‎Laborde, Léon de.‎

‎Commentaire géographique sur l'exode et les nombres. Paris und Leipzig, Renouard (Firmin Didot), 1841.‎

‎Folio. LXI, (1), 146; 48 SS. Anhang. Mit 13 (davon 3 gefalt. und 8 ganzseitigen) Tafeln mit insges. 19 Karten, wovon 8 als Lithographien ausgeführt. Halblederband der Zeit auf fünf falschen Bünden mit goldgepr., ornamentalen Rückentitel, marmorierten Decken und mehrfarbigen Vorsätzen aus lackiertem Kamm-Marmorpapier sowie grünem Lesebändchen. Erste und einzige Ausgabe dieses für die moderne christliche Bibelwissenschaft bahnbrechenden geographischen und soziologischen Kommentars zum im AT geschilderten Auszug der Israeliten aus Ägypten. Das Werk des französischen Archäologen und Reisenden Léon Emmanuel Simon Joseph Laborde (1807-69) besticht vor allem durch die nach seinen detailreichen Zeichnungen von den Pariser Firmen Formentin, Kaeppelin und Thierry kräftig und sauber lithografierten Tafeln, welche folgende, damals auch neue kartographische Erkenntnisse enthaltende Aufnahmen zeigen: eine Übersichtskarte der Wegstrecke des Exodus, Teile der ehemals römischen Provinz Arabia Petraea (in etwa die Sinai-Halbinsel und den Westen des heutigen Jordanien umfassend), den westlichen Teil des heutigen Ägypten und die Gegend der Stadt Suez, den Golf von Sues, den Wadi Feiran auf der Halbinsel Sinai, das Gebirgsmassiv rund um Horeb und Katharinenberg im Süden des Sinai, die Gegend rund um Dahab am Roten Meer und den Golf von Akaba. Bemerkenswert ist auch Labordes kenntnisreiche Analyse der Bibeltexte, die zudem in altgriechischen und lateinischen Versionen abgedruckt sind. "On aimera lire, par exemple, les observations sur la magie effectuées à propos de plaies d'Egpyte, ou tout ce que Laborde écrit sur les animaux, les maladies ou les coutumes d'Orient" (François Laplanche). - Eingebunden: "Discours du Roi. Séance Royale du 9 janvier 1843." Gr.-8vo. 4 SS. bzw. ein reichlich, mit Holzstichen illustriertes Ankündigungsblatt für zwei weitere Werte von Laborde: "Voyage en Orient" und "Voyage de l'Arabie pétrée." Gr.-4to. 4 SS. - Einband an den Ecken und Kanten berieben und bestoßen, innen durchgehend stockfleckig, fliegender Vorsatz mit hs. Besitzervermerk, insgesamt kompaktes, hübsch gebundenes Exemplar mit den gut erhaltenen, nur wenig fleckigen Karten. Mayeur/Hilaire, zit. in WBIS/ABF 3.0266.378.‎

‎[Biblia arabico-latina - Evangelium].‎

‎[Evangelium Sanctum Domini nostri Jesu Christi conscriptum a quatuor evangelistis sanctis. Rome, Typographia Medicea, 1591].‎

‎Folio (242 x 342 mm). 19-442, 447-450 and 455-456 pp., with pp. 9-18, 443-446 and 451-454, 457-462 and the final leaf supplied in 18th-century manuscript. With 138 (instead of 149) text woodcuts by Leonardo Parassole after Antonio Tempesta. 19th-century half cloth with marbled covers. The first Gospel printing in the interlinear Arabic and Latin version, prepared at the same time and printed by the same press as the first Arabic-only Gospel. These were the first works ever produced by Ferdinando de' Medici's "Medicea" press, founded by Pope Gregory XIII to spread the word of Christ in the Orient. Supervised by the able scholar Giovambattista Raimondi (1536-1614), its strength lay in oriental, especially Arabic, printing. After Raimondi's death, the press relocated to Florence. - The Arabic text is printed in Robert Granjon's famous large fount, generally considered the first satisfactory Arabic printing type; as all early printed editions of the Arabic Gospels, it is based on the Alexandrian Vulgate (cf. Darlow/M. 1636). The Latin version is by Leonardo Sionita. The work begins with page 9, without a title page or any preliminary matter at all: "the intended prefatory matter was apparently never published" (Darlow/M.); these first eight pages were not supplied until the 1619 re-issue. The present copy lacks the first five leaves and eight leaves at the end, all of which have been supplied in Latin and Arabic manuscript by an 18th century hand. Occasional browning; some worming to gutter (occasionally touching text as well as woodcuts); severe edge defects to the first few printed leaves; final printed leaves remargined; several severely duststained. Darlow/Moule 1637. Mortimer 64 (note). Streit XVI, p. 866, no. 5138.‎

‎Bonne, Rigobert‎

‎Arabie. Mer Rouge, et Golfe Persique. (Paris, ca. 1780).‎

‎Hand-coloured engraved map (365 x 260 mm). Detailed map of Saudi Arabia, the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, etc. Rigobert Bonne was the Official Hydrographer to the French Depot De La Marine. - In good condition. Not in Tibbetts, Al Ankary and Al-Qasimi.‎

‎Collingwood, William.‎

‎Trigonometrical Survey of a part of Mesopotamia. From Hillah to the Ruins of Niffer with the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. London, J. & C. Walker, 1862.‎

‎101 x 71 cm. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale, ca. 1:150,000. Signed by Collingwood. Impressive, early, large-scale map of central Iraq, showing the area between Al Hillah (100 km south of Baghdad) to the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur. Indicates sand hills, canals, old river beds, tracks, cultivated areas. Includes inset plans and views of Tel Ibrahim, Zibbleyeh, Nejmi, Niffer, and the Niffer Mounds. - Some paper defects and edge damage restored. Rare; copies are known in no more than two public collections (Bodleian; British Library). Personal copy of the cartographer William Collingwood, signed by himself as well as by Cdr. W. B. Selby, R.I.N. - Selby 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 mouth 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 he was undoubtedly one of the most gifted and productive R.I.N. surveyors of his day. OCLC 863254646.‎

‎Frischmuth, Johann (praes.) / Baumann, Andreas (resp.).‎

‎Exercitium academicum, ad locae quaedam scriptuae illustranda, [...] quibus Turcarum Persarumque doctores Muhammedem veri nominis, et a Deo promissum, fuisse prophetam probare satagunt. Jena, Samuel Krebs' Wwe., 1685.‎

‎4to. (24) pp. Numerous passages interspersed in Arabic and Hebrew characters. Papered spine. First edition. - Philosophical dissertation by the German theologian, linguist and oriental scholar Johann Frischmuth (1619-87) about various passages in the Christian Bible which are interpreted by Islam to contain references to the Prophet Muhammad: Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 50:2; Isaiah 21:7; Malachi 4:5-6; and John 16:7. - Slightly browned. VD 17, 3:009831S. Chauvin XII, 590. Arnold 277. Bibl. de Sacy I, 86f.‎

‎L'Isle, Guillaume de.‎

‎Carte de l'Egypte de la Nubie de l'Abissinie &c. Amsterdam, Jean Covens & Corneille Mortier, (1730).‎

‎Hand-coloured engraved map (645 x 540 mm). Guillaume de l'Isle used the three classic divisions in this map, but it also contains other divisions and subdivisions based on geographical and political considerations. - Well preserved. Tibbetts 199. Cf. Al-Qasimi 268 (Paris ed. 1707).‎

‎[La Haye, Jean de].‎

‎Peristromata Turcica, sive dissertatio emblematica, praesentem Europae statum ingeniosis coloribus repraesentans. [Nürnberg, Wolfgang Endter] (ad 1 with a false colophon: Paris, Toussaint du Bray), 1641-1642.‎

‎(2) [Harsdörffer, Georg Philipp]. Germania deplorata, sive relatio, qua pragmatica momenta belli pacisque expenduntur. (3) [Milag, Martin]. Aulaea Romana, contra Peristromata Turcica expansa: sive dissertatio emblematica, concordiae Christianae omen repraesentans. (4) [Anonymous French critic of Cardinal Richelieu]. Gallia deplorata, sive relatio, de luctuoso bello, quod rex Christianissimus contra vicinos populos molitur. 4 editions published together in 1 volume. 4to. With 2 engraved title-plates plus 12 full-page engraved emblematic illustrations, all on integral leaves, each with a small plate nested in a larger plate (7 in the Peristromata with a varying plate black and the same outer plate of a Persian carpet in orange). Gold-tooled light brown calf (ca. 1820?) by Charles Murton in London. Rare first and only Latin editions (probably the first and only early editions in any language) of four closely related polemical pamphlets on European policy toward the Ottoman Empire. The publication was instigated by the prominent Nuremberg poet and jurist Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1607-58), who somehow found access to the French manuscripts of the pro-Richelieu "Peristromata Turcica" (Turkish carpets), and the anti-Richelieu "Gallia deplorata", translated them into Latin, edited them for publication and added what is believed to be his own anti-French Latin rebuttal of the former, "Germania deplorata". On 26 November 1641 he sent all three to the Calvinist Prince Ludwig of Anhalt-Köthen, founding president of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in Weimar, who found the "Peristromata Turcica" shocking and dangerous, not only for its content but also because its remarkable and "seductive" graphic form. At a spring 1642 meeting of the society Ludwig initiated the writing and production of an emblematic rebuttal, the "Aulaea Romana" (Roman tapestries). Besides the political importance of these pamphlets as records of differing European attitudes toward the Ottoman Empire, they are remarkable graphic and typographic artefacts, early examples of colour printing and important emblemata. In 1536 Francois I had formed an alliance with the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent, and for a century Franco-Ottoman relations swung between extremes. Around 1626 Cardinal Richelieu began to encourage noblemen to strengthen France's economy by expanding its maritime trade in the Middle East, Near East and beyond. But with its great maritime power, the Ottoman Empire was not only a potentially valuable trading partner but also a fierce competitor and even a military threat to Europe's trade in those regions. Richelieu therefore attempted to form a Catholic union with the Holy Roman Empire and others to fight against the Ottomans. With owner's inscription of the lawyer and diplomat Georg Achatz Heher (1601-67) and bookplate of Robert Hoe (1839-1909), one of the greatest book collectors of all time. With the last quires (E-H) of the "Aulaea Romana" misbound following the last quire (G) of Gallia. A small marginal worm hole in the first work and the first leaves of the second, and an occasional small marginal chip or tear, but still in good condition. The binding with cracks in the hinges and some wear at the extremities, but otherwise good. Although these four editions were clearly designed to be published together, only about a dozen complete sets are known to survive, nearly all in Germany, Austria and Poland. Faber de Faur 497-500. Praz 448f. M. Reinhart, "Georg Philipp Harsdörffer and the Emblematic Pamphlets of 1641-42", in: Emblemata XX (2013), pp. 313-376 & XXI (2014), pp. 277-375. Stijnman & Savage, p. 46 (ad 1). Not in Atabey or Blackmer.‎

‎Lauthier, [Pierre-Jean-Baptiste], French lawyer (fl. 1694-1718).‎

‎Autograph letter signed ("Lauthier"). Paris, 16. II. 1715.‎

‎4to. 3½ pp. on bifolium with integral address panel. A first-hand account of the sensational entry of Mohamed Reza Bey, the Persian ambassador who visited Paris for six months beginning 7 February 1715. Adressed to Monsieur de Gallice, councillor of the Parliament of Aix-en-Provence, for delivery to the Parliament's Advocate General, Gaspard de Gueidan (1688-1767), the letter describes the ambassador's arrival, his reception (which is likened to that of a Pope), and the craze he creates among the onlookers, who sing, dance, and stare at him as at a strange animal: "Souffrez, mon charmans magistrats, que je vous presente une morale que je ne sais guere [...] Vous sçavrez, mon cher seigneur, que tout Paris est devenu mamamouchi depuis l'arrivée du seigneur Mehemet Rizabeek en ce pays cy. Cet ambassadeur de Sophi s'est réjouï comme un Pape à nos dépens. Il y avait toujours cinq ou six cent carrosses du monde qui l'allaient voir, comme un animal rare; et Son Excellence Persanne a fait chanter et danser nos dames devant luy, comme des marionnettes qui ne venoient là que pour le divertir. Maintenant il occupe la cour aprez avoir amusé la ville et s'en être amusé. Car on veut le recevoir à son audience avec une magnificence extraordinaire. Le Roy a fait dresser un trone au bout de la grande gallerie. Sa Majesté aura pour huit millions de pierreries sur ses habits [...]; et toute la cour à proportion sera habillée de ce joly coup là. Jamais les marchands d'étoffes d'or et de galons ni les brodeurs n'ont été si occupés [...] Il est vray que le tout se fait à crédit. Mais les gens de qualité sçavent trop bien leurs privileges, pour s'aviser de déroger en payant leurs dettes; cela est du dernier bourgeois. Aussy je vous assure que jamais la cour n'a été autant de qualité [...] Il faut espérer qu'aprèz ce bel oiseau de Perse, il viendra quelque autre amusette au peuple de Paris [...] Je vous avoueray bonnement que j'ay eu la curiosité de voir son entrée dans Paris, afin de l'étudier. Heureusement, il fit une pluye continuelle ce jour là! De sorte que Son Excellence se mit presque en negligé et que Sa Magnificence fut des plus minces, et je trouvay que cela ne valoit pas la façon de ma curiosité. Je ne fut pas le seul pris pour dupes tout Paris y fut trompé [...]". - The ambassador Mohamed Reza Bey (Mehmet Riza Beg) had been chosen for the mission by the Shah of Persia, Sultan Husayn, and travelled with a grand entourage, as befitted the diplomat of a mighty empire. He was solemnly received in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on 19 February 1715 with one of the most lavish ceremonies of the final months of the reign of Louis XIV. During his stay he conducted negotiations towards establishing trade treaties between Persia and France, and conferred with the French on possible joint military operations against the Ottoman Empire. The ambassador's exotic personage inspired the French imagination to create a whole artistic and literary current, the most lasting product of which are Montesquieu's "Lettres Persanes" (1725). - The lawyer Pierre Lauthier, a celebrated orator in his day, was the son of the Aix-based medical writer Honoré Maria Lauthier. Although most bibliographies credit the latter with the biographical preface to Joseph de Tournefort's posthumously published "Voyage into the Levant" (simply signed "Lauthier"), it is not unlikely that Pierre, with his penchant for the exotic, is the actual author of the Life of that famous Aix-born botanist and Middle East traveller (cf. Wellcome III, 458). - Removed from a registry, with traces of mounting along the left edge of p. 1. Traces of oribial folds; slight edge defects, some from removal of the seal, but well preserved on the whole.‎

‎[Persia].‎

‎Persia. N. p., Menzies, ca. 1820.‎

‎Hand-coloured engraved map (531 x 480 mm).‎

‎Plinius Secundus, Gaius (Pliny the Elder).‎

‎The Historie of the World, commonly called the Naturall Historie. London, Adam Islip, 1601.‎

‎Folio (32 x 20 cm). 2 vols. in one. (58), 614, (42) pp. (12), 632, (86) pp. Elaborate woodcut device on title-page; woodcut initials, head and tailpieces. 19th century half morocco & marbled boards, spine tooled in blind, lettered in gilt, raised bands. Pliny the Elder's renowned Natural History in its first publication in English, translated by Philemon Holland, the greatest translator of the Elizabethan age. The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. He claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20.000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy, geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. "We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [...] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [... He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [...] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia" (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. - Includes the final printed leaf in vol. 2, containing the errata and printer's colophon. In this copy, the title-page was evidently cut horizontally, above the device, then pieced back together, backed with early laid paper, with the lower half slightly darkened. STC 20029. Pforzheimer 496.‎

‎Sparvenfeld, Johann Gabriel.‎

‎Catalogus centuriae librorum rarissimorum manuscript. & partim impressorum, Arabicorum, Persicorum, Turcicorum, Graecorum, Latinorum, &c. Qua anno MDCCV Bibliothecam Publicam Academiae Upsalensis auxit & exornavit [...] Ioan. Gabr. Sparvenfeldius. Uppsala, Johan Henrik Werner, 1706.‎

‎4to. (6), 74 pp. With woodcut title vignette. modern boards. Extensively annotated catalogue of 115 Arabic, Persian and Turkish works, mostly manuscripts which Sparvenveldt had acquired in Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia in 1691. Edited with the help of Erik Benzelius and Olof Celsius. The titles are rendered in the original languages in Kirsten's fine Arabic types, brought with him to Sweden from Breslau in 1636. - Insignificant edge staining to title page; reverse shows old library stamp of Upsala College, East Orange, NJ, dissolved in 1995. Untrimmed copy. Smitskamp, PO 113d. Schnurrer 17 & 25. Besterman 152. Warmholtz 9270.‎

‎Tirion, Isaak.‎

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

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

‎Tirion, Isaak.‎

‎Nieuwe Kaart van t'Ryk van Persie. Amsterdam, ca. 1750.‎

‎Hand-coloured engraved map (365 x 290 mm). A detailed map of Persia and its adjoining countries. - Well preserved. Not in Tibbetts.‎

‎Vaugondy, Robert de.‎

‎Etats du Grand-Seigneur en Asie, Empire de Perse, Pays des Usbecs, Arabie et Egypte. [Paris], 1753.‎

‎Hand-coloured engraved map (560 x 490 mm). Matted. Robert de Vaugondy’s spectacular 1753 map of the Ottoman Empire. Vaugondy maps the empire at its height, with territory spanning from the Black Sea to the southernmost extension of Arabia and west, inclusive of Persia, as far as the Mogol Empire of India. Includes the modern day nations of Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, and Greece. Vaugondy employs all of the latest geographical information of the time incorporating both French and transliterations Arabic place names. This map offers splendid detail throughout inclusive of undersea shoals and reefs in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, and historical sites. A highly decorative title cartouche showing an Ottoman prince appears in the lower left quadrant. Five distance scales are in the lower right. Drawn by Robert de Vaugondy in 1753 and published in the 1757 issue of his Atlas Universal. Al-Qasimi 168. Al Ankary 353. McMinn 49. Not in Tibbetts.‎

‎[Zanzibar].‎

‎Panoramic view of Zanzibar. Zanzibar, c. 1900.‎

‎In 5 parts, ca. 39 x 13.5 cms each. Silver gelatin prints, mounted on cardboard. Rare set of original vintage photographs, taken from an elevation, showing the coastline of Zanzibar with various steamers as well as dock facilities. - Occasional slight fading, but very well preserved on the whole.‎

‎Albonesi, Teseo Ambrogio degli.‎

‎Introductio in Chaldaicam lingua[m], Syriaca[m], atq[ue] Armenica[m], & dece[m] alias linguas. [Pavia, G. M. Simonetta], 1539.‎

‎4to. 212 (instead of 215) ff. (lacking ff. 209, 212-213 and final blank). Title printed in red and black. With woodcut title border and two nearly full-page woodcuts in the text. Contemporary limp vellum with ms. spine title. Traces of ties. First edition. "The earliest Syrian and Armenian grammar printed" (IA). Extremely rare and early work of oriental studies, also important for the history of music due to the first illustrated description of the bassoon, which the author's uncle, Afranio degli Albonesi, had invented early in the century and had first demonstrated in 1532. - The canon regular Teseo Ambrogio degli Albonesi (often simply referred to as Ambrogio or Ambrosius; 1469-1540) taught the Syriac language. This introduction to the oriental languages - his only publication - is a mixture of lingustic treatise and a collection of exotic alphabets. If Albonesi's results are not in every case correct, they remain of great importance to the history of linguistic scholarship: the "Introductio" constitutes one of those works which inspired the budding discipline of comparative philology to undertake further research. "His work offers a detailed survey of the Syriac and Armenian languages from various points of view, and a short notice about the other exotic languages (Samaritan, Arabic, Coptic, Cyrillic, Ethiopic) - these languages are all discussed with examples written by hand in the earlier chapters, and throughout the work we find blank spaces where such words had still to be filled in" (Smitskamp). In this copy, these blank spaces have been filled in in ink by a contemporary hand. - Near-contemporary ownership, in Hebrew cursive, to title page. Minor edge tear to fol. 191. Binding loosened; lacks four pages in the final quire (including the colophon). Edit 16, CNCE 816. Adams A 957. Mortimer 20. BM-STC Italian 16. Eitner I, 91. MGG III, 1721. Smitskamp 240. IA 104.625. Brunet I, 229. Graesse I, 59.‎