4.497 Ergebnisse
8vo. 2 vols. XIV, 283, (1) pp. (2), 285-699, (5) pp. With a few diagrams in the text. Contemporary boards with handwritten spine labels. Rare first edition, "dedicated to the devotees and connoisseurs of oriental literature, by an assiduous student of the same, in Constantinople". One of Hammer's earliest works, written as a barely 30-year-old while serving as secretary to the Austrian delegation in Istanbul, this is the first German version of the bibliographical encyclopedia compiled by the Turkish scholar Katib Çelebi (1609-57), already used by Herbelot. Hammer amplifies this text from six additional manuscripts. - Katib Çelebi's introduction investigates the history, divisions, and estimation of science in the orient. This is followed by more than 300 sub-branches in seven general subjects: writing and calligraphy; language and history; propedeutics; speculative philosophy including natural and arcane science, medicine, and music (the most substantial class, comprising some 250 pp.); practical philosophy (ethics, political science); law and theology; as well as the inward sciences (ascetics). Each branch is headed by its original title printed in Breitkopf's Arabic typeface, often provided with extensive commentary (even discussing the various musical and astronomical instruments) and bibliography. - Bindings rubbed and bumped; spine sunned; interior somewhat browned and foxed as common. From the library of the Prussian chamberlain Rudolf von Stillfried-Rattonitz (1804-82) with his armorial bookplate "Ex Bibliotheca Stillfridiana" on the front pastedown. Goedeke VII, 750, 13. Graesse III, 32.
Latin ms. on vellum. 372 x 295 mm. Secretarial letter of safe conduct for the merchant and diplomat Anselm Adornes (1424-83) for a Burgundian embassy to Persia, issued in the name of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland. - From March to June 1474, Adornes, Lord of Cortachy, led an embassy in the name of Charles the Bold to the Shah of Persia Uzun Hassan (1423-78), whom the Duke of Burgundy sought to persuade to engage in a new military expedition against the Ottomans, following a campaign in the previous year which had ended in Uzun Hassan's defeat by Mehmed II. Adornes was chosen for this mission due to his knowledge of Muslim territories; he had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1470/71 (the account of his journey written by his son Jan is still preserved). - One of the most illustrious members of the Adornes-Adorno family, of Genoese origin, and a wealthy patron, Anselm was closely involved in international trade (mainly in alum and cloth from Tournai and England). He maintained commercial relations with Genoa as well as Spain and played an important role in Burgundian diplomacy. - Seal missing; a large tear touching the last lines of the text. Folded. Cf. Nationaal biografisch woordenboek XII, 2/25. C. van Hoorebeeck, Livres et lectures des fonctionnaires bourguignons (Turnhout, 2014), passim.
Folio (235 x 335 mm). Engraved title, 3 pp. of dedication, 1 leaf (Privilege du Roy), 12 leaves of text interleaved with 12 engraved plates, woodcut headpieces and initials. The plates, probably by Noel (not Nicolas) Cochin after La Chapelle, show costumes against a scenic background. Contemporary full vellum. First edition, very rare. Georges de la Chappelle, a native of Caen, accompanied the French envoy Le Haye to the Porte and spent several years in the Levant. His work is known to us almost exclusively through these engravings, showing what Thieme/Becker described as "the prettiest ladies in the Imperial Seraglio". In the introductory text included in this first edition, La Chappelle explains that the series was occasioned by a recent French edition of Chalcocondyles, in which (as he complains) the women's costumes were very poorly drawn. La Chappelle clearly had a special interest in female costume: "his own representations are highly detailed, with special attention paid to the fabulous jewels and fine needlework that adorn the garments of Levantine costume. (According to the preface, the accuracy of his drawings could be attested by Le Haye [...], in whose presence the drawings were executed.) To add verisimilitude to the plates, examples of Turkish, Persian, Tartar, Armenian and Greek costume are depicted against topographical backgrounds showing the areas in and around Constantinople in which the models were most likely to reside" (Atabey). Curiously, several of these backgrounds, when placed side by side, form a near-consecutive panorama of Constantinople and its environs. - Occasional light brownstains; wants front flyleaf. Vellum slightly stained and wrinkled; lower cover shows traces of old calculations. An attractive copy in a strictly contemporary binding. Atabey 648. Colas 1697. Thieme/Becker VI, 378f. Cf. Blackmer 935 (2nd edition). Not in Lipperheide or Cohen/de Ricci.
8vo. (2), 34, II pp. Contemporary blue printed wrappers. First edition of this exceedingly rare Russian account of a 1719/20 pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the only known work by the Russian merchant Matviei Gavrilov Nechaev (d. 1752). His descriptions of the settlements of Greek merchants in Russia suggest that he was involved in trading with them, an unusual practice at the time. In addition, his travelogue discusses the Turkish tax system, the plague epidemic in Constantinople of 1721, and the Arab revolts in Jerusalem, as well as the Maltese fleet and Russian slaves in Turkey. - A tiny tear to the upper margin of the title-page. Rare; only three copies library catalogues internationally (New York Public Library; Stanford Univ. Library; Dumbarton Oaks); no copy in auction records. OCLC 38678524. Not in Röhricht.
Small 8vo. 2 vols. VIII, 320 pp. 406, (2) pp. With 2 engraved frontispieces. Somewhat later brown cloth with giltstamped spine titles. Edges sprinkled. First edition; very rare. This is the earliest "édition pour la jeunesse" cited by Chauvin, containing such popular episodes as "Haroun al Raschid" and "Ali Baba". The editor chose not to tamper with Galland's century-old text, since modernisations would have compromised the "naïveté de narration". Contemporary reviewers, however, were quick to point out that any parts unfit for juvenile consumption had been omitted, while difficult passages referring to oriental customs were elucidated by editor's notes. A second edition (enlarged by a glossary) was published in 1825; a German translation would appear in 1828. - Bindings slightly rubbed. Interior evenly browned with light spotting. From the library of the Bohmian lawyer and amateur naturalist Ludwig Grasse of Reichenbach, with his repeated ownership stamps (ca. 1900). Rare; OCLC lists only three copies in libraries internationally (Cleveland; Weimar; Erlangen-Nuremberg). Chauvin IV, 76. OCLC 4433944.
Colour-printed map, ca. 124 x 97 cm. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:5,000,000. Conic projection. Rare German military wall map of the Near and Middle East, produced during the Second World War for the German General Staff. Marked as "First special edition, for service use only!". Shows international and administrative boundaries, as well as railways, roads, tracks, telegraph lines, and oil pipelines. - Traces of folds; a few minor edge chips. Formerly in the collections of the Geographical Institute of the University of Berlin with the Institute's stamp and pencil shelfmark. OCLC 49986920.
8vo. 2 parts in 1 volume. VI, 202 pp. VI, 114 pp. Modern orange cloth. Second German edition (the original French edition appeared in 1851); an English translation was published in 1863. The book is divided into two parts and includes extensive information on the principles of Arabian cavalry, military costumes of horsemen, celebrated Arabian horse breeds (Haymour, Bou-ghareb, Meizique), how to choose and acquire your horse, nutrition, hygiene, the meaning of the variously coloured horse attires, rigging, veterinarian medicine and illnesses, crippledness, castration, various kinds of military attacks in the deserts and how to execute them, tribal wars, as well as ostrich, gazelle, and falcon hunting. The book concludes with general remarks on the Sahara desert and a letter from the Algerian Sufi saint and military and religious leader Abd-el-Kader (1808-83), the Emir of Mascara who founded the Algerian state and led the Algerians in their struggle against French domination and in 1847 was imprisoned with his family by the French government in the fortress of Lamalgue in Toulon (France). The Emir wrote the letter while Daumas served as French consul in Mascara. In this letter the Emir, calling himself Daumas' friend, answers some questions Daumas previously asked him while preparing this book. - The French cavalry general Melchior Joseph Eugène Daumas (1803-71) was "directeur des affaires d'Algerie" and also served as Minister of War. "De 1837 à 1839, il avait rempli, auprès d'Abd-el-Kader, à Mascara, les fonctions de consul, et en 1847 il fut chargé d'une mission spéciale auprès de l'Emir, alors détenu au fort Lamalgue, à Toulon. Ces relations amicales expliquent la part prise par Abd-el-Kader à certains ouvrages du Général Daumas" (Mennessier de la L.). - Some annotations in coloured pencil. Old handwritten ownership "Berkovich" to title and preface. Title-page and table of contents professionally repaired. Cf. Mennessier de la Lance I, 348. Huth 178. Not in Fromm.
4to. 36 pp. Contemporary papered spine. First edition of this rare and early dissertation on the reception of Greek philosophy in the Arab world. Composed as an "academic specimen" by the young Nuremberg-born classicist Christopher Fabricius under the direction of the Altdorf professor Johann Nagel (1710-88), one of Germany's foremost oriental scholars of his age, this treatise is one of the first to investigate the crucial transmission process of ancient Greek "philosophia" into the Aristotelian and Neo-Platonically infused "falsafa" of mediaeval Islamic culture. The author points out that it was through Muslim travellers to India and China that even the cultures of the farther East were introduced to Western philosophy. - The study's principal Arabic sources are Abu al-Faraj and Jirjis ibn al-'Amid Makin. As the printer of Altdorf University, Meyer, lacked Arabic type, the quotations are set in Hebrew. Reprinted in 1753 in C. E. von Windheim's "Fragmenta Historiae Philosophicae". - A waterstain to the title-page, otherwise in good condition. Meusel X, 5.
8vo. 35, (1) pp. Half-tone portrait frontispiece of Abd al-Karim Qasim, two other full-page half-tone illustrations and a double-page map of the Gulf. Original printed wrappers, stapled. First edition of a rare pamphlet outlining the Iraqi claim to Kuwait and opposing its independence. - Kuwait emerged as an independent state in June 1961, after 62 years as a British protectorate. With a new constitution, it held its first parliamentary elections in 1963, thereby becoming the first Arab state in the Gulf to establish a parliament. Such political developments, married with growing wealth and modernisations in health, culture and finance, helped to make Kuwait the most prosperous state in the Arabian Peninsula. - The Iraqi government argued that the move toward independence was a continuation of Kuwait's relationship with Britain, albeit under a new guise. Furthermore, they felt that the historical links between Iraq (specifically Basra Province) and Kuwait entitled the former to control over the latter and, one suspects, a share of its growing wealth. This position, argued in the pamphlet, led to a point of crisis, with Iraq threatening invasion. To the relief of Kuwait, the Iraqis were eventually deterred by the Arab League's promise of military opposition. - Extremities darkened, some scuffs and light stains to lower wrapper, otherwise very good. Seemingly unrecorded: no copies in Copac/Jisc or OCLC.
8 volumes. Each volume ca. 100 pp. Issues present are vol. 7, no. 1; vol. 10, nos. 2 and 3; vol. 11, nos. 1 and 2; vol. 12, nos. 1 and 2; vol. 13, no. 1. Also included are 2 volumes of abstracts from the group's conferences, and a booklet on "American Images of Middle East Peoples: impact of the high school". - Some slight wear, otherwise in very good condition.
26 colour-printed topographic maps, sheets ca. 80 x 57 cm each or smaller. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:50,000. A rare set of 26 maps from the French military's atlas of the Levant, produced from the mid-1920s until the Second World War. Each highly detailed sheet is based on a quarter degree grid cell. The maps in the present ensemble focus on the environs of Aleppo (9 sheets), Latakia and Jableh (2 sheets), Hama and Homs (5 sheets), and Beirut and Sidon, east of the outskirts of Damascus (10 sheets). Considered products of military intelligence by the French government, the maps fell into German hands when Germany invaded France in 1940. The present maps were accessioned by the Geographical Institute of the University of Berlin during the early 1940s and bear the Institute's stamps and pencil shelfmarks. - Individual titles: Alep, Amouk, Batroun, Beyrouth, Djeble, Djezzine, El Hammam, Halba, Hama Ouest, Harim, Homs, Jabal es Smane, Jebail, Kartaba, Lattaquie, Ouest D'El Bab, Ouroum es Soughra, Rachaya-Nord, Rastane-Mecherfeh, Rayak, Saida, Sfire, Tell Kalakh, Tell Rifat, Zahle, Zebdani. - Occasional edge and corner flaws, some wrinkling, duststaining and minor chips and tears to margins, but altogether well preserved. The supersized map of Beirut is folded down the centre. OCLC 49951650.
8vo. (14), 242 pp. With a frontispiece, 3 maps in text (including 1 double-page) and 32 plates with reproductions of 109 photographs. Green cloth with illustrated dust jacket. First edition, second impression, of an account of the Arabs living in the marshes of southern Iraq, written by Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003), who stayed with them from 1951 to 1958. "From my recollections, helped by my diaries, I have tried to give a picture of the marshes and of the people who live there. Recent political upheavals in Iraq have closed this area to visitors. Soon the marshes will probably be drained; when this happens, a way of life that has lasted for thousands of years will disappear" (Introduction). In 25 chapters Thesiger describes his experience in the marshes. The book is illustrated with over 100 photographs showing the people, their homes, boats, horses and kettle, and some common activities like fishing, preparing food and making homes and buildings out of water reed. Thesiger also wrote "Arabian Sands", published in 1959. - In very good condition. Dust-jacket only slightly worn at head and foot of the spine. For the author see: A. Maitland, Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the Great Explorer (2011).
8vo. XXXIX, (1), 303, (1) pp. Contemporary full cloth with gilt title to spine and equestrian decoration on upper cover. The second volume of this highly scarce first German general stud-book, listing all thoroughbreds, with their lineage, owned in Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Transylvania, and Galicia. The first volume had appeared in 1847; by 1861 the series would comprise six stud-books. - Old ownership in blue pencil to flyleaf; well preserved. Extremely rare.
Folio (255 x 390 mm). VI, 26 pp. - (Bound with) II: Fundgruben des Orients I. [Ibid., 1809]. 85-190 pp. With 1 engraved plate. - III: Fundgruben des Orients VI. [Ibid., 1818]. 221-340 pp. With 1 engraved plate. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine label. Only edition, printed in Arabic and German parallel text. Critical edition and translation of the famous 13th century ode "Al-Burda", a religious poem in praise of the Prophet Muhammad written by Busiri, produced by the Austrian orientalist von Rosenzweig (1791-1865). Translated into many European languages since the 18th century, starting with the 1761 Latin edtion, the "Al-Burda" saw several German translations, including a lyrical translation by another prominent orientalist, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, in 1822, none of which, however, were as successful as this edition. It launched Rosenzweig as an editor and translator whose extensive work culminated with his three-volume edition of Hafiz' "Diwan", published from 1858 to 1864. - Bound with the Al-Burda are extracts from Hammer-Purgstall's six-volume "Fundgruben des Orients", taken from vols. I and VI, including extracts from the Quran and from the works of Ibn Chaldun, as well as a catalogue of Arabic, Persian and Turkish books held by the Vienna Imperial Library. - Extremities lightly bumped; binding loosened. Paper continuously browned throughout; occasionally brownstained and waterstained. Pages 241-244 of volume VI transposed between pp. 260 and 261. Some handwritten marginal notes in ink and pencil near the end. The spine label does not correspond to the title of the main work, reading: "Freitag Dissertation de la Angueara". - Rarely seen at auction. GAL II, 149. OCLC 311499210. Goedeke XVI, 628, 7, 2.
4to. (30 [instead of 44]), 480 pp. Contemporary limp vellum with handwritten spine title (wants ties). First - and likely only - edition. The first large-scale Syriac grammar, the third ever written (following those of Caninius, 1554, and Widmanstetter, 1555). Composed by the Maronite priest Jiris Ibn Mikha'il ibn 'Amira, it was printed by the Maronite scholar Ya'qub ibn Hilal (Giacomo Luna), who worked at the Medicean Press under Raimondi and was responsible for the Arabic and Syriac publications issued between 1590 and 1594. In 1595 he started printing on his own, and possibly took over some of the types of the Vatican Press. The work is listed as a Propaganda Press imprint ("olim typis nostris impressi") in Amadatius's 1773 "Catalogus", which shows the continuity that was felt to exist between the Medicean Press, the intermediate stage of Luna and Stephanus Paulinus, and the Propaganda Press. In the preface Raimondi is mentioned as the instigator of the work. - The 24 pt Syriac "serto" types were cut in 1590 by Jean Cavaillon for the Medicean Press. In the beginning a Syriac alphabet is presented, in three different scripts: "estrangelo" (this word possibly here used for the first time), "serto", and a Nestorian script possibly in type. This Nestorian script, a cursive form of estrangelo, is introduced here for the first time. In 1633 a slightly different typeface was used for Bellarmino's Catechism. - Preliminaries wanting 7 leaves but containing 4 additional interleaved blanks, two of which bearing Syriac annotations in a large, contemporary hand. Occasional light browning, a few leaves misbound. - Provenance: Handwritten ownership of the Discalced Carmelites of St. Joseph in Paris on the title-page and lower pastedown. - Quite rare. A second edition, supposedly produced in 1645 (cf. Nasrallah, p. 10), is not attested in libraries. Edit 16, CNCE 1541. Adams A 965. BM-STC Italian 356 (s. v. "Jiris"). IA 104.783. Zenker, p. 132, no. 1534. Smitskamp, PO 184. Vater/Jülg 388. Nestle 13. Duverdier, Impressions, 198. OCLC 7238840. Ebert 513 ("Selten"). Brunet I, 231 ("Ouvrage estimé").
Hand-coloured engraved map. Interesting map of Northeast Africa, extending from Tripoli and Egypt to Mt. Kenya, Somalia, etc. and including all of Saudi Arabia. Nice detail in the interior, including Nubia, Sennar, Abyssinia, etc. Shows the Sahara and some details in the interior. Inset map showing the Nile region. Unusually detailed for the period. Decorative border. A terrific regional map, from Colton, one of the most prolific American mapmakers of the mid-19th Century. Not in Tibbets, Al Ankary or Al-Qasimi.
4 picture postcards. A collection of vintage postcards showing the Ordnance Depot, Basra; the Mouth of the Ashar Creek, Basra; Qashla (Ashar Barracks) Basra; and View, Right Bank, Shatt-El-Arab. - All evenly browned a little; some foxing to view of the Ordnance Depot. The view of Ashar Creek is pre-printed with "Christmas Greetings and all Good Wishes for a Happy New Year".
460 x 670 mm. Farbige Lithographie auf Papier.
4to. 6 pp. of 3 ff. With autograph envelope. To the English diplomat and army officer Christopher Palmer Rigby, Consul of Zanzibar from 1858 to 1861. Kirk raises his doubts about Sultan Majid bin Said's desire to end the slave trade, whilst already foreseeing that his successor-to-be Burghash bin Said would be more open to this aim. - Kirk expresses his hopes that in Zanzibar there will "soon be a more rigorous policy for suppression of [the] slave trade", noting that "this year the Arabs have had it all their own", as Britain was engaged in the Abyssinian Wars, and that "my experience of the Arabs is [...] they are all liars, but Suliman bin Ali the real Sultan and only man to go to if you wish anything done is decidedly no exception", discussing the poor health of Majid, Sultan of Zanzibar, and a school of thought that his expected successor, Burghash bin Said ("a very intelligent Liberal man, outspoken and quick"), would be more friendly with the English, expanding on the rivalry between various local factions within Zanzibar. - John Kirk, chief assistant to David Livingstone during his celebrated expedition from 1858 to 1863, was appointed vice-consul of Zanzibar in 1866, and in 1873 "persuaded the sultan of Zanzibar to sign an anti-slavery treaty, closing the island's slave markets, and providing protection for all liberated slaves" (ODNB). An incomplete transcription of this letter is reproduced in Russell, General Rigby, Zanzibar and the Slave Trade, 1935, pp. 301f.
20,5 x 31,5 cm. Original hand-coloured map. In Ottoman script. Western paper with watermark (posthorn in crowned shield). Rare manuscript map of Kosovo Vilayet, an Ottoman first-level administrative division, showing the borders of the sanjaks in red and marking cities including Üsküp, as well as rivers and railway lines. It includes the Novi Pazar Sanjak, which was set up in 1865 as a result of the abolition of the Bosnian state and the establishment of the Ottoman Empire's Bosnia Province. With the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, the Novi Pazar Sanjak was separated from the Bosnian Province in 1879 and connected to the Province of Kosovo. The Taslica Sanjak was established in 1880 and consisted of Taslica and Prepol Kazas, with Austrian-Hungarian garrisons in the Priboy district. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War of 1912-13, this sanjak was shared between Serbia and Montenegro with the London Agreement in 1913. - With the personal seal of the cartographer Dervish Mustafa on verso. Somewhat brownstained and creased.
150 x 205 mm. AP press photo showing Sayid Idris al-Senussi in London shaking hands with Eric de Candole, British Administrator of Cyrenaica, and his wife. Captioned on the reverse: "Senussi leader arrives in London. The Emir Sayid Idris el Senussi, head of the state of Cyrenaica, photographed on arrival in London last night July 15. He is shaking hands with Mr. E. A. V. Candole, British Chief Administrator of Cyrenaica. At centre is Mrs. Candole. The Emir travelled from Derna to Marseilles in the battleship 'Vanguard' and thence across France. It is the Emir's first visit to England. While here he will have talks with Mr. Bevin on the future of Cyrenaica". Well preserved.
808:640 mm. Scale: 1:1,000,000. Folded. First edition. Map of the western coast of Saudi Arabia from Abu Shaibana in the north to Rakah in the south, and from Rabigh and Jeddah in the west to Turbah in the interior. Including parts of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Egypt. Compiled by W. O. 1939, drawn and heliographed by O. S. 1940. With 2 printed straight lines giving degrees of longitude dated December 1943. - Inscribed "Mecca 5" by a former collector near lower margin. - A few small tears and creases.
815 x 1140 mm (on 2 separate sheets). The first distance-time route map of the Ottoman Empire, one of the great masterpieces of Ottoman thematic cartography. Devised by the General Staff of the Ottoman Army and depicting the entire realm of the Sublime Porte from Albania to Yemen, it gives travel times between hundreds of locations, including various routes of the Hajj. - The map captures the scene during the middle of the rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (reigned 1876-1909), during which the empire still controlled vast territories in Europe, Asia and Africa, extending from the Balkans to the Arabian Peninsula. It is centred upon Anatolia but includes all the core regions of the Empire, extending from Bosnia in the northwest to the head of the Arabian Gulf in the southwest, and from Crimea and Baku in the north and east to Lower Egypt in the southwest. In the lower right corner is an inset capturing the western Gulf, including Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar; an inset above details the Red Sea, including Hejaz, Asir and Yemen; a larger inset in the lower left depicts Ottoman Libya as well as parts of French Tunisia and Algeria. Annotated in Ottoman Turkish throughout, the map is traversed by hundreds of lines that connect every city and town of importance, representing the main land travel routes between these centres; each segment states the estimated travel times between the points. The map also features a chart comparing distances between the principal centres: on average, the chart shows, it took 18 hours to travel from the Red Sea port of Jeddah to the holy city of Mecca. - This is the first map ever to display the distances between all significant travel points in the Ottoman Empire and would have been vitally useful to soldiers, merchants, and government bureaucrats planning their itineraries. It was also one of the only maps to give an approximately accurate notion of the times and distance along several of the most important Hajj routes, including the famous Syrian Hajj Road from Damascus to Mecca, now considered by UNESCO for World Heritage Status. - Transportation had always been one of the great challenges confronting the Ottoman Empire, an astoundingly vast realm spanning three continents and traversing some of the world's most rugged terrain. Yet the Hamidian Era marked a period of rapid modernization, including the creation of macadamized highways, railways and modern ports, and saw the rise of sophisticated cartography. The General Staff was able to draw on exhaustive highway surveys and recent itinerary records. The present map also depicts the rapidly expanding Ottoman railway system, after a wave of development had revolutionized travel in the empire's European domains, but just before an unprecedented boom in railway construction would do the same for Ottoman Asia. The Balkans are traversed by several railways: most notably as of 1888 the great port of Salonika was connected to the rest of Europe by rail, while Istanbul was linked to the European system for the first time that same year, providing the direct route for the famed Orient Express, which commenced in 1889. One will also notice the first great leg of the Anatolian Railway that connected Istanbul to Ankara on 31 December 1892, completed only a matter of weeks before the present map was issued. - Although Ottoman cartographers were producing topographic and thematic maps of the highest sophistication and diversity, every bit as impressive as those of the best German and French and British mapmakers, these works tend to be very rare today and are not nearly as well known as they deserve to be: they were almost invariably issued in small print runs, and maps intended for practical use in the field, such as the present work, tended to perish easily. Also, Turkey's switch to the Latin alphabet, in 1928, ensured that many of the surviving earlier maps were discarded, making this specimen a rare survival of an historic cartographical achievement. - Brownstains and waterstains.
4to. XII, 536 pp. With a French and a Latin title-page and 2 woodcut title-vignettes. Arabic types. Later red half calf with giltstamped spine and spine-title. First edition. - Early Arabic grammar by the orientalist Savary (1750-88), published posthumously and edited by Louis-Mathieu Langlès (1763-1824), the conservator of the oriental manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Napoleonic France. Langlès enriched the work with several Oriental fairy tales, including the legend of Sindbad in French and Arabic, making this the first Arabic printing of a tale from the Thousand and One Nights. Savary was also the author of the second translation of the Qur'an, published in 1783, which replaced Du Ryer's translation from 1647 and saw reissues as late as 1970. - Upper cover pierced in one place. Paper with occasional light brownstaining; small flaw to lower corner of p. 519, not affecting text. A fine volume in an appealing binding. Brunet V, 154. Schnurrer 429 (note). OCLC 234128786. Not in Graesse or Fück. For Savary cf. Dictionnaire des orientalistes de langue française 927ff.
Collection of 48 stereoscopic views (double prints on cardboard) (ca. 86 x 178 mm each). Includes original contemporary stereo viewer with collapsible handle, sliding focus tray, and padded viewing chamber with lenses. An American-manufactured mahogany stereoscope (Perfecscope, Underwood & Underwood, New York) with 48 photographs showing scenes of town and country, architecture, figures, and war. Well preserved, rare with the turn-of-the-century stereoscope in perfect working order.