4 432 résultats
Folio (34 x 24 cm). 1 p. on bifolium. Brown ink on paper, written in a clear gothic hand. Folded for sending and addressed on the outside, with a slot for a ribbon and traces of a red wax seal. Watermark: B [crowned heart] P, (with the feet of the letters toward the centre of the sheet). An informative letter written by the French regent Catherina de' Medici concerning the exchange of gifts between France and the Ottoman Sultan. Written in French, from Catharine's favourite palace, Château de Chenonceau in the Loire valley near Tours, to Jacques de Germigny (d. 1587 or 1596), French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Catherine, mother of King Henry III, last of the Valois kings of France, was a powerful and colourful figure (familiar in literature from the historical novels of Alexandre Dumas), often running the government for her son. In the present letter she arranges an exchange of gifts with the Ottoman Sultan Murad III (1546-95). Germigny had written to her on 17 July concerning various items he had selected, and she asks him to send the gifts from the Sultan to André Hurault de Maisse (1539-1607) at Venice, who was France's ambassador there. She also suggests a change in one item they are giving the Sultan: "J[']ay receu v[ost]re l[ett]re du xvij de juillet avec la liste des presens que ma faict la sultane mere du grand seigneur lesquelz vous me mandez avoir retenuz par devers vous pour me les faire apporter quant vous partirez de par dela pour venir trouver le Roy monsieur mon filz. Et pour ce quil pourra passer plus de temps jusques la que je ne le vouldrois et que je seray bien ayse d[']avoir plustost lesd[its] presens je vous prie de les envoier au Sr de Maisse ambassadeur du Roy monsieur mon filz a Venize lequel me les fera tenir par apres. Au surplus j[']ay a vous dire touchant Le Rouge que desire recouvrer de moy lad[ite] Sultane semblable a celluy que je luy ay cy devant envoie quelle trouve meilleur, et mieulx faict que celluy d[']Espaigne, que je n[']en ay plus maintenant, et ne seay en sorte du monde la recepte et facon de le faire qui est cau[s]e que je ne puis contenter a p[rese]nt lad[ite] Sultane de ce qu[']elle desire de moy en cest endrent, dont du suis bien marrye mais j[']adviseray si j[']en pourray avoir le moien par cy apres dont je vous advertiray [...]". Counter-signed by her Secretary of State, Pierre Brulart, and addressed to "Mons[ieur] de Germigny, ch[eva]l[ie]r de l[']ordre du Roy monsieur mon filz, son con[seill]er et amba[ssa]deur en Levant". The two-leaf folio was folded twice on horizontal folds, then briefly once more on a vertical fold without a sharp crease for sending. A cut through the sixteen layers would have had a ribbon through it and one can see traces of red sealing wax around the slot on the back. The letter was stored folded horizontally, and eight small worm holes run through the eight layers, but they barely touch an occasional letter of the text. There are also a few small marginal tears. In very good condition and with the whole sheet of paper untrimmed.
Colour-printed map (51 x 48 cm). Al-Qasimi 285.
Engraved map, hand coloured in outline. 535 x 371 mm. An English version of D'Anville's famous nautical chart of the Gulf from 1776. Although Bahrain is depicted, the large peninsula of Qatar is notably absent, and the coast between Bahrain and Abu Dhabi is marked "This Coast is not known". Al-Qasimi (2nd ed.), p. 236.
4to. 22¼ pp. on 12 ff. Extracts from the Arabic historical manuscript "no. 689" by Joseph de Guignes, the famous French sinologist and orientalist, with notes on the history of Egypt during the years 1517-1522 and the Ottoman conquest by Sultan Selim. Guignes's notes start at f. 111 and end at f. 334 of the Arabic manuscript, which is a part of a historical work on Egypt entitled "Bada'I al-Zuhur fi Waqa'I al-Duhur". The "Bada" was written by the famous chronicler of the late Mamluk and early Ottoman period in Egypt, Muhammad Ibn Iyas (1448-after November 1522) and today is kept in the manuscript section of the French Royal library (no. 1825, ancien fonds no. 689). Guignes's extract contains numerous of transcripts in Arabic script. - Today, Joseph de Guignes is best known for his "Histoire générale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des autres Tartares occidentaux" (Paris, 1756-1758), for his unsuccessful attempts to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics (before the 1799 discovery of the Rosetta Stone and Champollion's breakthrough), and for his theory that China was an outpost of Ancient Egypt.
Large 4to. A total of 2 pp. (one leaf and one bifolium), each with French translation (one on a separate leaf, the other on the verso of the bifolium). By a "Girgès" (Jirjis) to "Monsieur Le Baron de Hamm" who had invited him to Vienna during a visit to Upper Egypt. The recipient is likely Carl von Hammer, the eldest son of the important Austrian oriental scholar Joseph Baron Hammer-Purgstall: "Vous avez bien voulu à votre voyage à Lougsor [= Luxor] vous interessé a moi en m'offrant de me faire venir à Vienne. Je suis en ce moment au Caire à votre disposition. Voici l'été et le changement de climat me sera très favorable. Persuadé, Monsieur le Baron, que vous voudrez bien vous souvenir d'un pauvre orphelin et me faire l'honneur d'une réponse, je suis [...]" (Cairo, 26 March 1870, from the French translation). - "Monsieur le Baron Ham / Je viens vous dire que vous n'avez fait aucune reponse à mes lettres par lesquelles je vous priais de m'envoyer ses reponses. Ce procédé m'etonne d'autant plus qu'il n'est pas en rapport avec la promesse que vous m'avez fait a Loqsur, aussi je suis arrivé a Alexandrie depuis deux mois en attendant vos nouvelles. Pour tout cela je vous prie d'avoir la bonté de m'envoyer une lettre en y vous me fairais apprendre si vous voulez me faire apporter chez vous en Vienne ou non [...]" (Alexandria, 10 July 1870, from the French translation). - Slight edge tears and wrinkles, otherwise fine. - Carl von Hammer-Purgstall, born in Vienna on 20 January 1817, inherited Hainfeld Castle in Styria from his father. He retired from the Imperial army holding the rank of captain and served as member of the Styrian Landtag. He died in Trieste on 12 February 1879. - The great orientalist's youngest brother, the Graz-based lawyer Dr. Wilhelm von Hammer (1784-1872), was also still alive in 1870, but his advanced age at the time makes him appear an unlikely tourist of Egypt.
Large folio (60 x 42 cm). Letterpress title with engraved vignette, list of subscribers, winners of the St. Leger 1776-1814, 14 hand-coloured aquatint plates by T. Sutherland and R. G. Reeve after Herring, each with letterpress description of riders and winners of other races and the St Leger stakes for each year. Bound in recent half burgundy morocco with contemporary drab boards with large printed label on upper cover. "Extremely rare" (Tooley). Second edition of Herring's finest work, the outcome of his fascination with horse racing and the St. Leger in particular. "In the writer's estimation, the first series of the St. Leger winners contains the very best of Herring prints [...] they were engraved by Sutherland, a more competent aquatinter and colourist than his successors who handled these race-horses" (Siltzer). Herring spent the first 18 years of his life in London, where his father, an American, was a fringe-maker in Newgate Street. Having married against his father's wishes, he went to Doncaster, where he arrived during the races in September 1814, and saw the Duke of Hamilton's horse, William, win the St. Leger. The sight inspired him to attempt the art of animal-painting, in which he subsequently excelled. He painted Filho da Puta, the winner of the St. Leger in 1815, and for the following thirty-two years painted each winner in succession. "Herring's series of Portraits [...] were painted annually and quickly reproduced in large showy aquatints, the horses made literally glossy by the application of varnish to the paper" (Diana Donald, Picturing Animals in Britain 1750-1850, New Haven, CT [2007], p. 215). This is the second edition of this series of wonderful racehorse portraits. It was first published as a suite of 10 plates in 1824 by Sheardown and Son of Doncaster; S. and J. Fuller of London purchased these in 1827 and continued to publish, periodically, the St. Leger winner series up to 1845. The earlier plates were all re-captioned with Fuller's imprint. Plates watermarked 1825-28; the first plate in the present work, "Filho da Puta", is on paper watermarked 1827. - Very slight offsetting to text. Extremities rubbed; otherwise a superb example of this rare work. Siltzer 139-146. Mellon Horsemanship, 128.
Poster (ca. 52.5 × 32.5 cm) printed in black and red, with an image of four armed Arabian horsemen, with Arabic text above and below, and with the title in Spanish, French and English at the foot of the poster, together with the logo of the OSPAAAL. Rare propaganda poster of the OSPAAAL, the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America, designed by Olivio Martinez. The poster depicts four Arabian (Bedouin?) men on horseback, holding guns and galloping towards the viewer, with the text "Unity of the Arab peoples - Nationalization of oil" in Arabic above and below the image. At the foot of the poster is the logo of the OSPAAAL, flanked by the same text, given English, Spanish and French. OSPAAAL is a socialist Cuban political movement against imperialism and to defend human rights. The organization was founded in 1966 and was especially active in less developed countries. The posters were often stapled into copies of Tricontinental, the organization's magazine. - With only a small fold in the lower right corner, otherwise in very good condition. R. Frick, The Tricontinental Solidarity Poster (2003).
Oblong 1º (475 × 630 mm). 6 lithographed plates of horses, plus 1 additional lithographed view of the stud, all coloured by Pirscher himself with highlights in gum arabic. The first plate of the series with Pirscher's autograph signature and dated "1828". Unique set of Pirscher's famous series picturing the Duke's horses, coloured by Pirscher himself and obviously prepared for the owner of stud. The first horse depicted is Mirza, a "Silver grey national Arabian with red spots on his left shoulder, presented to the King of England by the Shah of Persia in 1819. As the Persian envoy assured the King, this was the noblest and most excellent Arabian ever to have stood in his master's stables". The other illustrations show mainly descendants of Mirza, who was transferred to the Ducal stables in 1821. The series was later expanded by another instalment to a total of 16 plates, with three of the seven plates redrawn and showing different backgrounds. Thieme/Becker lists the series as complete with 6 plates as present, as does Steinacker (cf. below). Apart from the present copy, neither the first series (as thus) nor the second, expanded edition is known in a coloured version. The use of body colours in this set underlines the fact that Pirscher's lithographs, issued in black and white only, were never intended for colouring, and that this set was eleborately redone and modified (with numerous details - such as the trees and bushes in Mirza's portrait - added by hand) by the artist himself to form a unique dedication copy for his sponsor. Karl Dietrich Pirscher (1791-1857) is one of the pioneers of lithography in Braunschweig. His horse plates are considered his best work and were praised as "probably the most splendid specimens of their kind created in the entire 19th century" (Steinacker). Provenance: 1. The Duke of Braunschweig's collection. 2. I. H. Anderhub library, dispersed by auction in 1963 (in which it constituted the second most expensive item, with an estimate of DM 2600). Slightly browned; some minor fraying to the extremities of the leaves and a few specks, otherwise in very good condition. Bibliotheca Hippologica I. H. Anderhub 238 (this set). Steinacker, Die graphischen Künste in Braunschweig, 114. Thieme/Becker XXVII, 90. Not in Bibl. hippologica Johan Dejager; Huth; Mennessier de la Lance; Podeschi.
Watercolour on paper, some on 2 sheets, mounted (sizes approximately from 155 x 230 to 300 x 480 mm), some with inscription or sketches on verso, most with captions either mounted, laid down or written directly on image. James Weir (d. 1820) was Captain of Marines on HMS Audacious from 1795 to 1800, and was also an accomplished watercolourist. Some of the earliest watercolours in this group were produced when the Audacious was on patrol off the Portuguese coast in 1796. Others were painted in the months leading up to the Battle of the Nile, when the Audacious was part of Nelson's squadron searching for the French fleet off the Italian coast after it had escaped from Toulon. Others were painted in the months leading up to the Battle of the Nile, when the Audacious was part of Nelson's squadron searching for the French fleet off the Italian coast after it had escaped from Toulon. He also depicted Nelson's flagship, HMS Vanguard, anchored at Naples Bay for repairs in October 1798, when he first met Emma Hamilton. Also shown are views of Syracuse and surrounding area, the Valley of Temples at Agrigento, Catania and Mount Etna, the Temple of Venus at Baia, the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Olympus, the interior of the Temple of Concord, Mount Nuovo and Pozzuoli near Naples, the Temple of Ceres at Segesta, Convent of St. Nicolo Argentum, the Iron Mine of Elba. The fleet at Palermo is also depicted, where Nelson had accompanied the royal court of the Two Sicilies after they fled Naples. - Very minor scattered tears or repairs, a few restored or trimmed, light staining or spotting.
Small 8vo. 6 vols., uniformly bound in contemporary brown half cloth with giltstamped spine titles. Still early printing of this revised edition of Habicht's German translation, based on a complete French translation prepared by Antoine Galland (1646-1715) and expanded by Gauttier. The manuscript which Galland had bought in 1701 is the oldest Arabic text extant (dating from 1450 or later). The German editor Maximilian Habicht (1775-1839) lived in Paris for a decade as a member of the Prussian delegation. He knew vernacular Arabic well and separately published an edition of the Arabic text of the "Nights" (cf. Fück). - Slight browning. Volumes 1 and 2 have old colour vignettes applied to the half-titles; pencil ownership of Marianne Alschech to second volume, otherwise fine. Hayn/Gotendorf V, 276. Chauvin IV, 249 (note). Cf. Fück 157.
Albumen prints: 3 cabinet cards (ca. 14 x 10 cm) and 3 cartes-de-visite (ca. 9 x 5 cm, including 1 repeat), all mounted on cardboard, two with Geiser's studio imprint. A collection of rare portraits by the Algiers-based photographer Jean Geiser (1848-1923) showing Algerian women in traditional dress, both veiled and with uncovered faces. - Occasional light staining, but well preserved.
Tall 4to (183 x 305 mm). 61 unnumbered ff. Complete Arabic manuscript with two intercalated sections (ff. 18v-23r, 53r-57r) in Ottoman Turkish. Page layout carefully organized; writing luxuriantly penned in an elegant hybrid style mixing tulut and tawqi, associated with manuscripts of highly dignified content or commissioned by a wealthy patron. Black ink, 9 lines per extensum within a gilt "gadwal" border. With a brightly coloured "sarlawh" headpiece (f. 3v) of illuminated bulb-shaped forms in gold, pink and light green, with vegetal twists unfolding on a bright blue background veined with green stems and dotted by reddish and golden buds. Contemporary giltstamped calf binding with fore-edge flap (repaired). A finely preserved manuscript comprising "'arqam" (official notes) related to the Great Mosque (Ulu Camii) of Erzurum in Eastern Turkey, occasioned by the successful completion of major restoration work on the building begun in AD 1639 under the appointed local governor Hüseyn Pasha. The manuscript's opening pages contain a summary of "the estates depending on the complex of the mosque", followed by a catalogue of places, buildings or factories belonging to or administrated by it, such as a "masbaga" (dye-works), a "mamlaha" (saltern), a "madbaga" (tannery, here given with the Turkish translation of the term, "bi't-Turki debag-hana"), etc. Leaf 2r lists both the Great Mosque's officials and contractors or stipendiaries, along with their respective wages ("li'l-mudarris asarat darahim fi kull yawm" - "to the principal of the madrasa: ten dirhams a day"; "li-'l waiz saba darahim fi kull yawm" - "to the (official) preacher of the Mosque: six dirhams a day"; to the first Imam of the Mosque four dirhams a day, etc.). The remainder of the text sets out detailed accounts for the summarized information, but also includes liturgical exaltations of Allah and the Prophet Muhammad, praised in Koran- and Sunan-derived eulogies. - Dated separately twice: first in Arabic, in the final three text lines of the Turkish section of f. 23r ("the first days [i.e. 1st/10th] of the month of Du'l-Higga of the Islamic year 1058", i.e., between 17 and 26 December 1648 AD); then at the end, last four lines of f. 60r, stating that the manuscript was completed on "the first days of the sacred month of Muharram of the year 1060"AH (i.e., between 4 and 13 January 1650 AD). - A well-preserved, complete 17th-century manuscript drawn up for the recently restored Erzurum Mosque and its extensive appurtenances, likely also in recognition of their status of inalienability, i.e. the establishment of an Islamic waqf, or mortmain regime. Thus, the manuscript records the mosque's administration in both legal and religious terms, in accordance with the Sunni law of the Ottoman Empire.
Large 4to. All 31 issues, comprising a total of 774 pp. (some lithographic, others published as a typescript, but mostly letterpress), preserving the original printed wrappers. With 2 folding plans. Bound in 1920s green half calf over marbled boards. Rare collection of the annual reports published by the administrative board of the Beirut Port holding company: the complete stretch from 1889 (when work on the harbour began) to 1922. - Even since the 1860s, the old harbour of Beirut, 150 by 100 metres in length and a mere two metres deep, was rapidly becoming too small for the ever-expanding volume of traffic. In 1887 a consortium was formed of the Compagnie Impériale Ottomane de la Route Beyrouth à Damas, the Ottoman Bank, the Comptoir d'Escompte de Paris, the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, and the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes. Reincorporated as the Paris-based "Compagnie Impériale Ottomane du Port, des Quais et Entrepôts de Beyrouth", they obtained a concession from the Porte in 1888, and construction was completed in 1895. "The new harbor, located further to the east, provided deeper anchorage (two to six meters) next to an 800-meter-long pier running almost parallel to the coast and protected by a breakwater 350 meters long. The dock area covered twenty-one hectares, with vast warehouses whose metal cladding had been designed by Gustave Eiffel" (Kassir, p. 119). Located at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa, Beirut quickly became one of the principal ports between Europe and the Near East. Trade was hampered during the years of the First World War, but Beirut still received "more ships than any other port along the Syrian coast" (ibid., p. 122). - The first seven reports, covering the building phase, from 1889 to 1894, are printed as lithographs; from 1895 onwards they are letterpress, providing a full account of assets and liabilities, profits and losses, and resolutions adopted by the board, accompanied by extensive sets of tables. The publication was interrupted only in the war years, when the company was temporarily dispossessed, for which time the present volume instead contains a "Historique" and a "Memorandum", both published as typescripts. The series was resumed in 1921. - This collection bound for the "Banque de Syrie et du Liban" with their bookplate on the pastedown. Binding rubbed and chafed, but internally a very well-preserved set. Cf. Samir Kaffir, Beirut (UCA, 2010).
Folio (265 x 340 mm). (6), II, 47, (1) pp.; 6 pp. (ads). With 77 plates and plans (some collotype, 4 double-page). Original cloth (rebacked preserving original spine). First and only edition of this superbly illustrated description on the Muslim architecture of the more provincial towns of the state of Gujarat on the western coast of India. "Among the many varieties in the style of the Muhammadan architecture prevailing in different provinces of India, that which arose in Gujarât in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is one of the most instructive and deserving of study, as it is also the most beautiful" (preface). - 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. - Binding rubbed; original spine rebacked. Modern endpapers. Still a fine copy.
Large 4to (158 x 240 mm). (6), 219, XL, (29) pp. With different engraved vignette on each title-page and folding engraved plate. Contemporary Spanish marbled calf, flat spine with red morocco lettering-piece. Marbled endpapers. Edges sprinkled red. First joint edition in Arabic and Spanish. - The Neoplatonist Persian philosopher Ibn Miskawayh (932-1030) worked as a chancery official and librarian for various viziers of the Abbasid empire; many of his works show and document the influence of Greek philosophy on his thought. His Arabic paraphrase occasionally contains additional passages not recorded in the original Greek text. - The "Pinax" ("Table" or "Painting") is an allegorical moral sketch of human life commonly attributed to the Greek philosopher Cebes, a student of Socrates, though the book's real author likely flourished in the first century AD. The Neoplatonist and Pythagorean perspective of late Hellenistic Stocism earned the text great popularity among later readers: "To us, all this appears sterile and trite; yet its impact was such that even the visual arts attempted to recreate a fiction whose author in fact shows little graphic flair" (Wilamowitz). One such attempt to transfer the titular "painting" into an engraving is found in the present edition. - Extremities quite insignificantly rubbed; a very appealingly preserved copy. Hoffmann I, 447. Palau 50822 ("Bella edición"). Not in Engelmann/Preuss.
Hand-coloured engraved map (scale: 70 miles to 1 inch). 692 x 668 mm, including fold-out section at right edge showing Ras al-Hadd. Matted. Exceedingly rare, large map of the Arabian Peninsula, based on surveys conducted under General F. R. Chesney (1789-1872), the explorer of the Euphrates and founder of the overland route to India. Drawn by W. H. F. Plate. This is a second, improved edition of a map that had previously appeared in 1847 under the simple title "Arabia" (kept at the British Library, referenced as IOR/X/3205 within the Qatar Digital Library). "Mesopotamia and its rivers are laid down from Surveys made during the Euphrates Expedition. The Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Southern Coast of Arabia are from those made by the Officers or the Indian Navy. The interior of the peninsula is from various sources, particularly materials furnished for the accompanying work by Aloys Sprenger M.D. and from documents obtained by Dr. Plate" (note). Finely preserved. No copy known outside the British Library. OCLC 556388606. Not in the Al-Qasimi Collection.
8vo. 108 pp. With an engraved frontispiece and 5 engraved plates, all in original hand colour. Remains of wrappers. Third edition of this early 19th century French primer. The reading matter with its lively illustrations is chiefly drawn from Aesop's Fables. - Brownstained throughout. Untrimmed, partly uncut copy with marked edge flaws; wants binding. Rare. OCLC 460509998.
6 cards, 110:70 mm each. A complete set of six so-called "Liebigbilder" issued by the German producer of beef extracts, the Liebig Extract of Meat Co., showing falconry practises throughout the world and history: by Kublai Khan in the 13th century, in mediaeval Flanders, in 16th century Belgium, in 19th century Persia and 17th century Japan. - Very well preserved.
8vo. 2 vols. (instead of 3). Contemporary purple half calf with marbled boards and endpapers. First French edition of Ibn al-‘Awwam's famous "Book of Agriculture", probably written towards the end of the 12th century and regarded as the most comprehensive agricultural treatise in Arabic. The author "gathers all the knowledge of his time concerning agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry into a huge compendium of excerpts from all the previous agronomical traditions and treatises [...] To these he often adds his own observations and experiences [...] He records, for example, his experiments in grafting the wild olive of the mountains with the domesticated olive of the plain, and his successful cultivation of saffron, under irrigation, in the mountains [...] Ibn al-‘Awwam’s treatise comprises 34 chapters dealing with all aspects of husbandry - it mentions 585 different plants, explains the cultivation of more than 50 fruit trees, and includes many valuable observations on soils, manures, grafting, and plant diseases (Sarton 1927-48, II, pp. 424-25). Ibn al-‘Awwam also includes an agricultural calendar, one of the few Andalusi agronomists to do so. The last section of his work is devoted to animal husbandry, with chapters on cattle, sheep, goats, camels, horses, mules and donkeys, geese, ducks, chickens, pigeons, peacocks and beekeeping. As well as being of great value and interest for the study of agricultural history, the Kitab al-filaha has enabled scholars to reconstruct the original texts of some previous authors whose work has only survived in abridged or fragmented form. In addition, the profusion of references, even though sometimes entangled and difficult to unravel, provides the historian with a wealth of information on the transmission of knowledge" (Filaha). - Lacks the second part of vol. 2, not published until 1867; the set thus comprises chapters 1-30 (out of 34). Well preserved. Fück 204. Mennessier de la Lance I, 667. NYPL 184. OCLC 6985613.
8vo. (4), 3, (1), 9-24, 374 pp. With 2 steel-engraved portrait plates (one bound as a frontispiece). Contemporary marbled half calf with giltstamped Arabic title to spine. First and only Arabic edition of this Life of St Marguerite-Marie Alacoque (1647-90), the French mystic who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in its modern form. First published in French in 1729. The author Jean Joseph Languet de la Villeneuve de Gergy (1677-1753) was the archbishop of Sens (Auxerre). - With separate title in Arabic. Printed entirely in Arabic save for the French title and dedicatory preface. Binding somewhat rubbed and chafed in places, paper lightly browned, but well preserved. Extremely rare; no copy in library catalogues internationally.
Folio (210 x 308 mm). 60 pp. With 27 engraved and etched plates (some double-page). Contemporary speckled sheep. Marbled pastedowns. First and only edition, printed at the second printing press established in Istanbul. "A rare and very interesting work outlining the military reforms and the regulations for the New Troops established by Selim III in 1796/97" (Blackmer). The author, Mahmoud Ra'if, was a member of the reform movement instigated in Turkey by Sultan Selim III, who tried to change the traditional political structures of the Ottoman Empire and replace them with a political state that owed much to his youthful contact with Europe, and more particularly, the influence of the French Revolution. After his succession in 1789, Selim took steps to establish a new state under the Nizam-Jedid ("new order") regulations - from which the present work derives - underpinning his state with the formation of a new army and military infrastructure. Among the moves towards "Europeanisation" were the installation of printing presses at the military engineering school (where the present work, the first from the press in roman types, was printed), and the establishment of Ottoman embassies in the capitals of Europe, including London, where Mahmoud Ra'if served as secretary to the Ottoman Ambassador in the mid 1790s. As outsiders feared, the very reforms which are the subject of his work led to Selim's murder in 1808, while the author himself was "cut to pieces" by the enraged Janissaries whose elite position had been threatened. "The establishment of these troops - the Nizam-Jedid - and the jealousy which this aroused was one of the main factors leading to the revolt of the Janissaries in 1808 which cost Selim, and later the author of this work, their lives" (Blackmer). - Binding very slightly worn, interior clean and flawless throughout. Provenance: armorial bookplate of the Swedish diplomat Johan Henrik Tawast (1763-1841), who was seconded to Constantinople in 1812-13 to help negotiate the Russian-Turkish peace treaty of Bucharest; his autograph note "Scutari, 9 janvier 1813. 16 piastres, 20 pares" inscribed to front pastedown. Latterly in the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research. Atabey 752. Blackmer 1060.
4 vols. 8vo. (4), LIV, (8), 460 pp. (4), 535, (1) pp., final blank. (4), 504, (20) pp. (4), 479, (5) pp. Contemporary French mottled calf with gilt spine. All edges red. Marbled endpapers. First edition of this history of Arabia, at its time a standard work of reference, covering the years 629 through 1288 AD. German and English translations followed within a few years of publication (the German version was prepared by none other than the great playwright of Enlightenment, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing). - Rubbed and bumped at extremeties; occasional light browning and insignificant wrinkling to a few pages. A good copy. Gay 3586. Macro 1538 ("1758" in error). Brunet VI, 28011. Graesse IV, 399. Jöcher/Adelung IV, 724.
Large 8vo (18 × 26 cm). 3 vols. Volume 1 with 137 reproductions of manuscript pages of Ottoman Turkish text and maps and volume 2 with 4 plates. Publisher’s original printed wrappers. Only published edition of the original version of the "Kitâb-I Bahriyye" (Book of the Sea) by the great Ottoman navigator and cartographer Piri Reis (1465/79-1553). After assembling two important maps using numerous sources (in 1513 and in 1528), including a map drawn by Columbus, Piri Reis decided to collect "all his own observations and all previous information that he could not fit onto the maps" in a book. "It is basically a naval guidebook with essential data on the most important coastal routes and large maps and detailed charts [...] The main portion of the book is devoted to the Mediterranean coasts and islands [...] Piri first gives historical and geographical information and then discusses the necessary practical navigational data. The accuracy of many of his statements is indisputable" (DSB). The final chapter of the book describes the newly discovered continent Antilia "the mountains of which contain rich gold ores and in the seas, pearls [...] The chapter on the Western Sea contains all that was known about the discovery of America at the time" (DSB). First written in 1521, the manuscript was reworked in 1526 for presentation to Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. This later manuscript was published twice, in 1935 and 1998, but Piri's original version is still only available in the current edition by the German scholar Paul Kahle (1875-1961). The first volume (in two bindings) is a facsimile of a manuscript in Bologna containing Piri Reis's 1521 text, with a few pages from a manuscript in Dresden in between. The second volume is an annotated German translation of the text, based on these manuscripts as well as on a manuscript in Vienna. This is still considered the best translation of the Bahriyye. - Bindings slightly soiled with the spines discoloured and slightly damaged; covers of the second part of vol. 1 almost completely loose but the book itself still structurally sound. In good condition, with vol. 2 still unopened. DSB X, pp. 616-619. Howgego, to 1800, P104. Lepore, Piccardi, Rombai, “Looking at the Kitab-i Bahriye of Piri Reis”, in: e-Perimetron VIII, no. 2 (2013), pp. 85-94. Lowry, “Pîrî Reis Revisited”, in: Journal of Ottoman Studies XXXV (2010), pp. 7-31.
4to (29 x 19.5 cm). VII, (1 blank), 147, (1 blank) pp. With 24 hand-coloured lithographed plates by William Brodrick. Publisher's blind- and gold-blocked cloth, front board with title and large illustration of a falcon. First edition of a complete and important treatise on the art of falconry by F. H. Salvin (1817-1904), in which he describes the various species of birds used in England, both hawks and falcons. ''The best English book on falconry and a very attractive publication'' (Schwerdt). - The treatise is illustrated with lithographs by William Brodrick (1814-1888); they show 21 falcons and 5 hawks; plates 22-24 depict equipment used for falconry. The stones for the first edition were destroyed after publication so the plates for the second edition (London, 1873) had to be redrawn. - With bookplate of Leon Colin Somervell on front paste-down. Some pages and plates reinforced, two plates loose, some spotting, but still in good condition. Binding discoloured and slightly worn. Nissen, IVB 147. Souhart 419. Schwerdt II, p. 145. Wood p. 541. Not in Thiebaud.
8vo. With portraits of His Majesty King Saud Ben Abdulaziz and Prince Faisal Ben Abdulaziz, and 10 maps, including 2 folding. Original publisher’s decorated wrappers. The annual report of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the fiscal year 1382–1383 AH, with text in Arabic and English. The most important topic is hydrology, including the Abha Dam project, the related Wadi Jizan and Irrigation project and the Al-Qatif water drainage project. Other topics covered include locust control, fertilizers, soil quality etc. The results of many tests are displayed on 10 maps. - With library stamps. Some minor stains and a small tear to the wrappers, but internally in very good condition.