Koenig, Alexander.MareMagnum
4to. 188 pp. Illustrated with 52 colour plates and 2 black and white plates depicting birds of prey, a plate with 4 photographs of nests, and 2 lithographed illustrations in the text of ancient Egyptian statues of falcons. Rebound in blue half morocco with title label. The very rare only published volume of "Die Vögel am Nil" by Alexander Koenig (1858-1940): a monograph on the birds of prey of the entire Nile region, with many beautiful plates. Koenig traveled to the Nile six times to study the local fauna and concentrated his findings in this second volume, completed near the end of his life. Koenig was a scholar and a man of wealth as well an an avid collector. In 1912 he founded the renowned Museum Koenig in Bonn. In 1964 the 'first' volume was published posthumously in Bonn by the Alexander Koenig Stiftung under the title "Alexander Koenigs Reisen am Nil". Koenig had first published his studies on Egyptian birds of prey in the "Journal für Ornithologie" over the course of many years (1907-32) under the title "Avifauna Aegyptiaca", with some plates. All of these contributions were assembled and expanded, with new plates added, in "Die Vögel am Nil". (The plates already published in the journals are marked "Avif. Aeg."). The birds are divided into three types: vultures, falcons, and owls. The chromolithographed plates of vultures are done by F. Naubaur after E. de Maes (the eggs only by De Maes). Most falcon plates are signed "FR" (A. Frisch) in the plate and executed by Otto Kleinschmidt, printed at the Kunstanstalt Köhler at Gera (Germany), others are by F. Neubaur and E. de Maes. Another plate of eggs (XLIX) is by Paul Preiss. Most of the owls are done by F. Neubaur, with the exception of plate LIV, which is signed "JCK" (Keulmans). The ornithological artist Otto Kleinschmidt was also a collector of bird specimens. His collections of over 10,000 specimens was sold to the Museum Koenig in 1935. - In fine condition. Anker 266. Nissen IVB 524.
188 pp. With 2 (out of 3) lithographed plates ("annexures"), of which 1 folding table showing the movements of all army units from the landing in Suez "up to the present state". Original blue printed wrappers. Official report of the Mesopotamia Commission appointed in August 1916 to investigate the events connected with the Siege of Kut Al-Amara, the worst Allied defeat of the Great War. The Commission's remit was to enquire "into the origin, inception, and conduct of operations of war in Mesopotamia, including the supply of drafts, reinforcements, ammunition, and equipment of the troops and fleet, the provision for the sick and wounded, and the responsibility of those departments of Government whose duty it has been to minister to the wants of the forces employed in that theatre of war" (p. 3). In the spring of 1916, T. E. Lawrence had been dispatched to Mesopotamia to assist in relieving Kut by either starting an Arab uprising or negotiating a secret deal with Enver Pasha, offering £2 million for the free retreat of the troops; the mission produced no useful result, and General Townshend surrendered on 29 April after a siege of 147 days. Some 13,000 Allied soldiers survived to be made prisoners. - Contents include: Origin of Mesopotamia expedition; Advance from Basra to Kurna; The advance from Amara and Kut; Correspondence and telegrams as to advance on Baghdad; The advance from Kut to Ctesiphon; Operations for relief of Kut; Armament, equipment, reinforcements; Transport; Medical breakdown; Causes contributing to the errors of judgment and shortcomings of responsible authorities; Findings and conclusions; Separate report by Commander J. Wedgwood; Vincent-Bingley report; Memorandum by Sir Beauchamp Duff; Colonel Hekir's account of the siege of Kut-el-Amara. - Waterstained throughout; edges and corners severely wrinkled, bumped and frayed; traces of dod-earing. Binding soiled; spine chipped. OCLC 3303415. Cd. 8610.
Original poster. 51.5 x 34.7 cm, one illustration in a box with titles in grey, signed 'DP' or 'PD' in a monogram in the stone, titles in black on grey, offset lithography. Old horizontal and vertical folds, a small tear on top edge (not affecting image), some trivial browning, worn through on one of the folds. A good, clean copy. A captivating poster from a campaign that redefined the strategy of relief efforts in the 20th century. - When news of the atrocities committed by the Ottoman government against Armenians reached America in 1915, a group of salubrious New Yorkers banded together to form the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (named American Committee for Relief in the Near East from 1918-1919). After raising $60,000 for direct relief at their first meeting, the committee set about taking their cause to the public. The effort to do so centred around a media campaign of unprecedented ambition and modernity: one that utilised famous speakers, first-hand accounts from the Near East, and an array of visual media. - This poster was part of the imagery that inspired the American people to give over $116 million for direct relief between 1915 and 1930. The work of the committee also saved the lives of over a million refugees. It still exists today as the Near East Foundation and continues to provide support to over 40 countries in the Near East, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East.
Folio (220 x 355 mm). Title page, 21 sheets numbered A-X with letterpress rectos only, partly hand-coloured. Original wrappers with mounted armorial engraving in original colour on the upper cover. An unusual, typographically ambitious publication commemorating the merger between the University of Breslau and the Protestant Viadrina University, previously located in Frankfurt an der Oder, re-established at Breslau on 3 August 1811 as the "Königliche Universität zu Breslau - Universitas litterarum Vratislaviensis" after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleon and the subsequent reorganisation of the Prussian state. The 21 celebratory poems in different types and languages (including Arabic, Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, Dutch, Latin, German, French, Spanish, English, and various Slavic languages) all praise the university. The specimens in Arabic type boast coloured borders and 'unwan headpieces; an example inspired by mediaeval manuscripts has a coloured initial with pretty tendril designs. - The printer, typographer and publisher Johannes Augustus Barth (1765-1818) was based at Breslau; after the defeat of Napoleon he would publish another work with multiple languages and types, "Pacis annis MDCCCXIV et MDCCCXV foederatis", issued in 1818 with 63 poems in 99 languages. - Margins show small tears (partly restored). Wrappers stained and with soft folds; interior slightly age-toned and dusty in the margins, but text clean and in good condition. Rare. Erman/Horn II, 2027. OCLC 14198089.
205:253 mm and 180:130 mm. One picture shows Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980) with Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa I, ruler of Bahrain from 1942 until his death in 1961; the other is a portrait of the latter.
Folio (202 x 294 mm). (16), 100 pp. Title printed in red and black. With woodcut title vignette and full-page woodcut of the author at the end of the preliminaries. 19th century half cloth. Second edition of Galvao's great history of exploration and voyages, including the Portuguese conquests on the Arabian coast, in the Gulf, and in the Kingdom of Ormus. The first edition, published in 1563, is considered virtually unobtainable, as only some five or six copies are known to exist. "This second edition, says Innocencio, 'has been equally rare for many years, since almost all copies were lost, in the house of a bookdealer, during the Lisbon earthquake'" (Borba de Moraes). Galvao's text was translated in 1601 by Hakluyt, who complained about the rarity of the first edition even then, and had to rely on a copy sent from Lisbon. - Born in 1503, Galvao was sent to India in 1527, and after distinguishing himself there, he was appointed governor of the Moluccas. He maintained a keen interest in military and religious affairs throughout his career, and spent the latter part of his life assembling accounts of the voyages that comprise this collection. He provides a relatively succinct chronological list of ancient and modern discoveries to the year 1550, including those by Columbus, Cabral, Cortés, and Pizarro. "Ce livre est divisé en deux parties: la première traite des premières navigations, y compris celles faites par les Espagnols et les Portugais dans l'océan Atlantique et aux côtes d'Afrique. La seconde partie contient toutes les découvertes faites par les Espagnols et les Portugais en Amérique et aux Indes jusqu'en l'année 1550" (Leclerc). "The author has been styled 'the founder of historical geography'. The book gives a good summary of the geographical explorations of the Portuguese and other important voyagers, including the English" (Hill). - Spine worn. Slight spotting and thumbing throughout, slight worming to lower blank margin of first 6 leaves, minor hole to blank margin of fol. M3. Sabin 26468. Borba de Moraes 289. Bosch 180. Rodrigues 1059. Palau 182.290. Leclerc 225. Innocencio I, 147, 720. Hill 670. Bibliotheca Americana 642. European Americana 731/89.
8vo. 564 pp. Contemporary half cloth over marbled boards with giltstamped spine. Rare Lebanese printing of the famous "Maqamat" ("Assemblies" or "Sessions") of al-Hariri of Basra (1054-1122): a virtuoso display of Arabic poetry, consisting of fifty anecdotes written in stylized prose which used to be memorized by scholars. "Al-Hariri's Maqamat tie in with the tradition of al-Hamadani. Like he, al-Hariri tells us of the experiences of an educated vagrant, Abu Zaid from Sarug. But his aim is not so much to render vividly this creature of his imagination or even his environment, but rather to invest his accounts with every syntactical and lexical finesse imaginable, and it is these, rather than the content of the narrative, that are to captivate and preoccupy the reader. This is the final flaring of the national Arab spirit: dazzling and, for the moment, pretty as fireworks, but similarly barren, ultimately fizzling out without effect" (Brockelmann). Hariri's masterpiece continued to captivate European Arabists since the 17th century (cf. Fück, 148). - Spine title reads "Fihris / pers.", misidentifying both the language and the title (copied from the pencil transliteration under the heading of the table of contents). A good copy from the library of Horst Wilfrid Brands (1992-98), professor of Turkish Studies and Islamic scholarship in Frankfurt am Main, with his ownership stamp to pastedowns. OCLC 63545591. Cf. GAL I, 276. (S I, 487, cites an 1873 Lucknow edition).
4to. (2), LIV, 130, (2) pp. Title printed in red and black with engraved title vignette. 1 folding genealogical table. Contemporary half calf with gilt spine and spine label (chipped). First edition; "a groundbreaking achievement" (Fück, p. 111). Reiske's unvocalised edition of Tarafah's text, with a Latin translation on opposite pages and the commentary of Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nahhas. "The appended notes trace the poet's chain of thought and elucidate the various themes with their poetic phraeseology by comparison with parallels in other works [...] A geneaological plate visualizes the kinship between Tarafah and other northern Arabian ports, facilitating the reader's checking the chronological approaches suggested in the prologue" (ibid.). In sharp contrast to his teacher Schultens, the brilliant scholar Reiske (1716-74) was one of the first Arabists whose work was fully independent of the constraints of Biblical exegesis. - The sixth century Arab poet Tarafah was the author of the longest of the seven odes in the celebrated collection of pre-Islamic poetry "al-Mu'allaqat" (Moallakah). Some critics judge him to be the greatest of the pre-Islamic poets, if not the greatest Arab poet. - Very rare. Schnurrer 202. Fück 110. Graesse IV, 554. Van der Aa VI, 69ff. Encyc. Britt. 26, 415. OCLC 22661575.
Colour map and 111 plates and plans, some collotype, one double-page, 4 pp. advertisements at end. Original cloth. First and only edition of this study of mainly Hindu and Jaina architecture in the state of Gujarat on the western coast of India, superbly illustrated with collotypes. Published as volume IX of the Archaeological Survey of Western India. - The Scottish archaeologist James Burgess (1832-1916), founder of "The Indian Antiquary", did educational work in Calcutta, 1856 and Bombay, 1861, and was Secretary of the Bombay Geographical Society 1868-73. He was Head of the Archaeological Survey, Western India, 1873, and of South India, 1881. From 1886 to 1889 he was Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India. - With light foxing to first few leaves, binding slightly rubbed.
8vo. 3 parts in 1 volume. 151-220 pp. (1867); 236-309 pp. (1868); 39-118 pp. (1869). (With) II: The same. Abdruck aus den Berichten der philol.-histor. Classe der Königl. Sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften 1870. Dritte Fortsetzung der Beiträge zur arabischen Sprachkunde. 227-295, (1) pp. Contemporary vellum-backed red marbled boards with handwritten spine-title. Treatise on textual emendations to the history of Muslim Iberia by Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari. Offprints from three volumes of reports of the Scientific Society of Saxony. - Bound with this is the sequel to another essay on Arabic linguistics by Fleischer, "Beiträge zur arabischen Sprachkunde". - From the collection of the German librarian and oriental scholar Julius Euting (1839-1913) with his ownership in black ink to the flyleaf and with an inscription on the following blue wrapper, summarising the content and with a small stamp of ownership at top right ("J. Euting, Strassburg").
Large 4to. VI, 146, (2) pp. With a folding table. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine title. Marbled endpapers. First edition. - Arabic text, with Latin translation, of chapters 6-7, 9-10, part 1-2, of Hamzah al-Isafahani's "Tarikh al-umam"; and extracts from al-Nuwairi's "Nihayat al-arab" (in Latin only). The folded table presents the "Series regum Hirensium, una cum synchronismo regum Persarum, prouti Hamza Isfahanensis eos exhibuit". - Binding rubbed; some browning to interior, old shelfmark label to pastedown. Provenance: handwritten ownership of the Göttingen-based oriental scholar Mark (Mordechai) Lidzbarski (1868-1928) to flyleaf, with additional Canadian library stamps of the Ottawa Commissariatus, Terrae Sanctae. Rare. OCLC 13131770. For the Danish oriental scholar Jan Larson Rasmussen cf. Fück 156.
8vo. X, 187, (1) pp. With frontispiece, 31 plates, 7 maps (3 in lower cover pocket), and 8 panoramas, mostly folding. Contemporary quarter calf over green cloth covers with giltstamped red spine labels. First edition. - The British-Indian Army's official account of the 1919-20 Waziristan campaign, marked "Confidential" on the title-page. The operations followed unrest that arose in the aftermath of the Third Anglo-Afghan War; they were conducted in the mountainous region of Waziristan (now in Pakistan) by British and Indian forces against the fiercely independent Waziri and Mahsud tribesmen that inhabited it. Since the 1870s, the British government agencies were assiduous in compiling internally published histories of their military frontier operations, with the intention of providing a "valuable guide" to such British commanders and policymakers as "might have future dealings with these turbulent neighbours" (as the Punjab Government phrased it in 1866). - Serial No. 1235 stamped to title-page. Occasional light marginal staining. A few edge flaws consistent with army use, repaired by a contemporary owner. In all a well-preserved, complete copy. OCLC 11497145. Catalogue No. C.W. 4 - Case No. 8987 N.S.
Colour lithograph, 790 x 625 mm. Mounted on original cloth with maps series key printed on verso. Folded. The finest contemporary map of the Çanakkale sector of the Gallipoli Campaign, the site of the dreaded "Narrows" of the Dardanelles where Allied naval forces made their ill-fated attempt to "force the straits" towards taking Istanbul. Drafted in Cairo under the direction of T. E. Lawrence at the Arab Bureau's Intelligence Office, based on a recently captured Ottoman map. - In the early days of World War I, the Entente sought to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the conflict by taking Constantinople, by way of the Dardanelles. The Gallipoli Campaign (17 February 1915 to 9 January 1916) involved a force of 490,000 British, Indian, Australian, New Zealander and French troops making various landings upon the Gallipoli Peninsula that strategically guarded the mouth of the Dardanelles. The 325,000 Ottoman defenders, backed by German forces, successfully repelled these raids in what was one of the most bloody military contests in world history. - From the outset, the Allies were hampered by a lack of accurate maps of the Gallipoli Peninsula and the adjacent Asian shore of the Dardanelles. They eventually succeeded in capturing a complete six-part set of excellent, newly published Ottoman surveys showing the battle theatre in its entirety. These maps were rushed to the map department of the Intelligence Office (later the famed "Arab Bureau") in Cairo, where they were translated, enlarged and improved by a team headed by Lieutenant T. E. Lawrence, later known as "Lawrence of Arabia". These maps were printed by the Survey Department, Egypt, as a series of six interconnecting maps, although each map was designed to act as a stand-alone work complete in and of itself (a geographic key to all six maps is present on the verso of the present map). - Overall clean and bright, with some very light staining to upper-left quadrant and some light wear at some fold vertices.
Small folio (207 x 311 mm). 295, (1) pp. 26 ff., numbered 1-27. Issues 1 through 7 (of 8) bound together, with an additional booklet is bound at the end of the volume (addendum file no 1., 29 Oct. 1967). Contemporary blue full cloth binding with gilt-printed title label in Hebrew and Arabic to upper cover. The first orders issued by the IDF military authorities in the West Bank after the Six-Day War (Milhemet Sheshet Ha-Yamim, or Harb 1967). Printed in Hebrew and Arabic, the pamphlets include more than a hundred and fifty orders, proclamations and lists of position-holders. - Binding somewhat stained, but generally well preserved. OCLC 20345168.
8vo. XVIII, (2), 93, (3), 8 pp. (ads). With lithographic frontispiece of "A Persian Girl" sketched on stone by the translator, printed by C. Hullmandel. With an inserted slip. Original boards, rebacked with new spine label. First English edition: a prose version by the British oriental scholar James A. Atkinson (1780-1852). "This is a specimen of Persian humour, a jeu d'esprit, founded upon female customs and superstitions. It pretends to be a grave work, and is in fact a circle of domestic observances, treated with the solemnity of a code of laws" (preface). With a fine lithographic frontispiece drawn by Atkinson, faithfully depicting a "Persian Girl" in traditional dress, with a lute and hookah by her side, her hair adorned. - Provenance: 1) Wilberforce Eames, (1855-1937), U.S. bibliographer and librarian, known as the "Dean of American bibliographers" (his ink ownership to flyleaf); 2) pencil ownership "Wm. Berrian" (?) to flyleaf; 3) bookplate of the Wisconsin Consistory Library to pastedown; 4) Quaritch notation to pastedown (sold by them). A fine copy; scarce. Wilson 10 & 123. Cat. of the Library of Wilberforce Eames (NY, Anderson Auction, 1905), no. 6247 (this copy).
8vo. 2 parts in one volume. (2), 52; 15, (1) pp. With colour-lithographed title to the Ottoman text. Stitched as issued. Lagus's dissertation for the professorship in Helsinki (which he lost to Kellgren). Includes the Ottoman Turkish text. - Some browning. Uncut, untrimmed copy. Henriksson-Puuponen 78. Marklin 34. OCLC 66728813.
4to. (2), (8), (3)-75, (1) pp. With 1 folding table. Contemporary marbled brown boards, spine reinforced with later brown cloth. An orientalist dissertation by the Hessian scholar Happel, incorporating a grammar of the Arabic language and a glossary harmonising Hebrew terms from the first four books of Genesis with Arabic words from three Qur'an suras, namely sura 1 (Al-Fatiha), 12 (Yusuf), and 64 (At-Taghabun), previously edited by Erpenius. - Some browning throughout due to paper. Lacks free endpapers; front hinge reinforced. 19th and 20th century ownerships to pastedown. Schnurrer 87. GV (1700) 56, 6. OCLC 31311242. Not in Fück.
Large 4to. X, (2), 134 pp. Contemporary green half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine title. Marbled endpapers. First edition. - History of the Muslim world and its rulers from Muhammad's flight (AD 622) to the year 1020 AH (AD 1611). The Danish oriental scholar Jan Larson (Jens Lassen) Rasmussen (1792-1826) had studied in Paris with de Sacy (cf. Fück 156). - Binding rubbed and bumped. Some browning and light dampstaining to interior, old shelfmark label to pastedown. Provenance: stamp of the oriental scholar Charles Barbier de Ménard (president of the École des Langues orientales from 1898 to 1908) on title, with additional Canadian library stamps of the Ottawa Commissariatus, Terrae Sanctae. Rare. OCLC 953808200.
8vo. 2 vols. (4), XV, (1), 400 pp. (4), 488 pp. With 10 engr. plates (2 folding). Contemporary quarter calf over mottled boards on four raised bands. Gilt lettering and decoration to spines. Marbled endpapers and edges. First edition of J. T. Reinaud's (1795-1867) rare catalogue of the famous collection of Islamic Art amassed by the French statesman Blacas. Most copies have title changed to "Monumens arabes, persans et turcs". This copy is inscribed by Reinaud to the Duc de Luynes, another famous French antiquarian. - The French antiquarian and diplomat Pierre Louis Jean Casimir, prince de Blacas d'Aulps (1770-1839) acted as prime minister to Louis XVIII when he succeeded Napoleon in 1814 and later served as French ambassador to the Holy See. Remaining in Rome for many years, he provided Ingres with a commission and became a patron to the German classicist Theodor Panofka. He worked closely with Italian archaeologist Carlo Fea in the excavation of the Roman Forum, supported the orientalist Jean-François Champollion and created the "Musée Egyptien" within the Louvre. In 1866, his descendants sold most of his collection to the British Museum, where it remains to this day. - The plates show beautiful specimens of Arabic calligraphical art (including many seals). Some browning and staining throughout. From the library of the Ducs de Luynes from the Château of Dampierre with bookplate to pastedowns. Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 159. Gay 3592 bis (variant title). Brunet IV, 1198. Graesse VI, 72. Quérard VII, 513. OCLC 39974885. Not in Arntzen/Rainwater.
21 album leaves with 1 drawing mounted on each recto. Album: full-sheet leaves (oblong folio, 395 x 525 mm); drawings: oblong folio and oblong 4to. An album with 21 watercolour drawings on paper with views of sea coasts from the shore (240 x 310 mm to 295 x 465 mm), one with a 22nd watercolour drawing on the back with a similar view, and one with about 15 human figure drawings in graphite pencil on the back. All bear the artist's stamp on the front (Lugt 3703) and 4 are signed or initialled by the artist. Richly gold- and blind-tooled green goatskin morocco, sewn on 3 recessed cords (not aligned with the six flat raised bands on the spine), each board with a blind-tooled inner oval frame of interlaced abstracted leaves and vines, surrounded by a gold-tooled frame of similar decoration (oval inside and rectangular outside), surrounded by 2 frames of thick-thin fillets, the front board with the owner's initials in textura capitals in the centre: "A.L.", signed at the foot of the spine, "A. Giroux & C:" (last recorded in 1856), white watered silk endleaves (the paste-down in the form of a doublure). The whole in a protective folder lined with thick leather, with green goatskin morocco where it wraps around the 2 short ends, and chemical-marbled paper sides (black papier croise d'Annonay: cf. Wolfe XXI, 1-3: France, 1830s-50s), with remains of a green cloth tie on the flap. A richly gold- and blind-tooled album (ca. 1850/56) containing 22 excellent and detailed watercolour views of rocky sea coasts, all or nearly all in New Caledonia and Peru (plus 1 graphite pencil drawing of about 15 human figures), the coastal views made from the shore. All were executed by Osmond Romieux (1826-1908), a leading amateur artist who made them during his tours of duty as a French naval officer. At least 18 have a pencil note on the back identifying the location: 15 "Nouvelle Caledonie", 2 "Pérou" (drawings 18, 20) and 2 "Callao" in Peru (drawings 17, 18). We have found no location indicated on drawings 3 (with views on both sides), 8 and 19 (with figure drawings on the back). Most of the drawings were made from the sea shore, looking out over both the sea and the nearby coasts, nearly all with rocky cliffs or outcroppings and some with trees or other plants. Many were made along bays or inlets where one can see the coast on both sides and the water in one view. Some show fortifications or other buildings, a few show boats in the water or on the shore and several show people on the shore, all or nearly all in European dress. Drawings 2, 8, 15 and 17 are signed or initialled by the artist. - No drawing in the album bears a date, but the album shows no signs of other items having been removed, so the drawings probably date from before or soon after the album was manufactured. The album leaves are made of wove paper with no watermark, but A. Giroux & Cie is not recorded after 1856 and the binding style suggests the album is not much older. Most of the drawings are made on thick wove paper with no visible watermarks and with a rough surface texture much like many of today's watercolour papers. Drawing 4 is on thinner and smoother wove paper with no watermark visible and drawings 9 and 11 are on laid paper watermarked (in the centre of a half-sheet): grapes on a crowned shield (20 grapes plus stem, rendered naturalistically, with grapes arranged in an irregular pattern rather than a honeycomb and sometimes overlapping), about 118 x 70 mm (chainlines 26 mm apart). Unfortunately, the watermark literature does not cover this period well, but the crown is in the general style of those used much earlier for a fleur-de-lis on a crowned shield, such as Heawood 1822. Drawings 20 and 21 may be on the same stock as 9 and 11 but show no watermark, though 20 was made in Peru and the others in New Caledonia. Drawings 9, 20, 21 and probably 3 and 19 are executed on oblong 4to leaves; at least most of the others are on oblong folio leaves. Drawing 13 may be backed with smoother wove paper. - Prosper Halvor Henri Oscar Romieux, who used the first name Osmond, joined the French navy at Rochefort (less the 30 km from his native La Rochelle) in 1841 and passed his exams at the École Navale in 1843. He made his first tour of duty in Polynesia during the Franco-Tahitian War (1844-47), at least from 1845 aboard the ship "La Virginie". We find no record of Romieux or the ship visiting New Caledonia during this period, although it is "only" 4500 km from Tahiti. Romieux must have shown artistic skill from early childhood, for already on this first tour he made excellent watercolour drawings, and he continued to make watercolour views around the world until he retired from duty in 1891. He was made a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1863 and later an officier. Other undated drawings also record him in New Caledonia and Peru (including Lima and Callao). He is documented in New Caledonia in 1880 and 1882, but the present drawings are unlikely to be that late, and we have found no date for his visit(s) to Peru. We have little record of Romieux's movements from 1848 to 1850, but if he left the South Pacific he soon returned, for he is recorded in Hong Kong in 1851 and the Philippines in 1852 (in 1851 he was an Enseigne on the ship "l'Algérie"). He must have left in 1852, however, for he is recorded in the Seychelles (in the Indian Ocean) in 1852 and Italy in 1853 and 1854. In this last year he was promoted to Lieutenant, but we have another gap in the records of his movements from that time to 1860. He may have made the present drawings during this period, for he set off for the Levant on the ship "Redoutable", apparently in or shortly before 1860, since he is regularly recorded in Syria, Lebanon, Greece, Algeria and Jerusalem from 1860 to 1864. He was promoted to Capitaine in 1867 and continued his travels, but since the present album was probably bound in or before 1856 we think it unlikely that he made the drawings after 1864. - Although the binding is signed by Giroux, the firm operated primarily as suppliers of artists' materials and Ramsden plausibly suggests that they "commissioned bindings by the best executants of the day". Alphonse Giroux established the firm by 1799, but his son Alphonse Gustave Giroux (1809-86) managed it from at least 1838 and the father died in 1848. - We have not identified the "A.L." who apparently acquired these watercolours and had the album made in the 1850s: Lugt lists several French collectors with those initials active at the time. One watercolour has a small corner torn off at the lower right, another is slightly frayed along the right edge and the one on thin wove paper is very slightly browned, but the watercolours are otherwise in very good condition. The binding may have been expertly rebacked, preserving the original backstrip, but so unobtrusively that one must wonder if the binding was originally made that way. It is further in very good condition and even the folder is olny slightly rubbed.A lovely and finely executed series of large watercolour drawings of the coasts of New Caledonia and Peru, probably made in the 1850s and mounted in a stunning gold- and blind-tooled contemporary album. For Romieux: Lugt 3703. For Giroux: Flety, Dictionnaire des relieurs francais p. 82; Ramsden, p. 94.
8vo. XXI, (3), 529, (1) pp. and pp. 515a-518a. Modern red library cloth. First book edition; very rare. "The first and only comprehensive bibliography of Arabic texts and books on Arabic language and literature by European scholars, printed in Europe 1505-1810" (Breslauer-Folter). "Extremely diligent descriptions, for the most part based on autopsy" (cf. Fück). Dedicated to de Sacy, the bibliography was first published in 1799-1806 as a series of seven university programmes. - Some browning and brownstaining throughout as common, due to paper. Old shelfmark label to spine and title-page, with additional Canadian library stamp of the Ottawa Commissariatus, Terrae Sanctae. A good, tight copy of a standard work almost unobtainable in the original edition. Breslauer-Folter 119. Besterman 152. Breslaueriana 1090. Fück 146. Zenker I, 1755.
Large 4to (220 x 274 mm). (6), 47-58, 483-782 pp. With 4 tables. Later red half morocco over marbled boards with gilt title to spine. Offprints from vols. 47 & 48 of the "Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres" with separately printed title-page. The four "mémoires" which make up the first piece were variously read in public between 1787 and 1791, but published for the first time in 1793; the second, much longer part, was first heard on 5 April 1785. Includes long extracts in Arabic from Masoudi, Sirat Alresoul, Kitab Aldjouman, Tabari, and others. - Shelfmark to spine, unobtrusive blind library stamp to title & following 2 leaves. Ownership inscription of Col. S. B. Miles to front free endpaper, and his wife's presentation bookplate (Bath Public Reference Library) to front pastedown. Wilson 197.
Small 8vo. 71, (1) pp. plus (12) pp. of publisher's ads. Publisher's original printed red cloth. Rare manual of vernacular Egyptian Arabic, intended "for the Navy and Army, Travellers, Missionaries, and Traders on the Nile, in Alexandria, or in the Sudan [...] By the use of this book, students will find they are quite competent to make themselves clearly understood by all classes of Arabs met with in Egypt, the Sudan, and a considerable part of North Africa". Includes "colloquial phrases, travel talk, naval, military and commercial terms, money, weights, and measures", omitting grammar and Arabic characters, instead employing Latin-alphabet transliteration throughout. - Binding loosened; traces of use and moisture. Handwritten ownership of "Alexander Morrison", dated 1897, to front flyleaf.
Ca. 550 x 770 mm. Ottoman Turkish manuscript with large Tughra of Sultan Abdülmecid I (reigned 1839-61). 1 page. Black ink on single sheet of sturdy, smoothed laid paper (watermark: "GFA"; Fratelli Gava manufactory of Lombardy & Venice?). A scarce example of a mid-19th century Levantine manuscript firman granting permission to travel in the Ottoman Empire, issued to Sir Jacob Henry Preston (1812-91), 2nd baronet of Beeston St Lawrence. Preston was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1832); his seat was at Beeston Hall near Norwich in Norfolk. - Traces of old folds. Small stain with related small hole not affecting text; contemporary ink annotation on verso: "Travelling firman for Sir Jacob Henry Preston". In fine condition.
8vo. XVI, 668 pp. With a frontispiece printed in colours and gilt in the style of an Arabic title (lith. Bastide). Elegant oriental-style red morocco binding with fore-edge flap, covers blindstamped with gilt borders, spine gilt in western style. Marbled endpapers. Widely received introduction to Arabic by L. J. Bresnier (1814-69), a disciple of Silvestre de Sacy and the first professor of Arabic in Algiers. - Some insignificant foxing to margins, but a fine copy in a unique binding, from the library of the Algerian essayist and Muslim leader Mourad Kiouane, a participant in the World Muslim Conference held in Karachi in February 1951 (with his ownership stamps). Even many leaders among the Algerian Muslims of the 1950s, educated by the French colonial system, spoke good French but only Algerian Arabic rather than the standard variety, which hampered their ability to converse with the leaders of other Arab nations. Famously, Algeria's first president Ahmed Ben Bella broke out in tears when invited by Nasser to speak for the first time before an Egyptian audience, but finding himself unable to do so. Partly in response to this, and to promote pan-Arabism, Nasser sent droves of Arabic instructors to Algeria in the 1960s. OCLC 929616431.