4 355 résultats
Stencil-coloured lithograph. 33.7 x 42.8 cm. One of the very rare Weißenburg illustrated broadsheets showing oriental motifs. These were published under the fictitious address of Hassan Uwais (Auvès) in Cairo. The actual publisher, Camille Burckardt, was head of the Weißenburg company from 1880 until 1888. - Slight crease with minor edge damage; occasional browning. All of these prints are very rare; a different print commanded £21,250 at Sotheby's in 2012.
Stencil-coloured lithograph. 42.5 x 63.7 cm. Framed (77:63 cm). An extremely rare illustrated broadsheet showing the procession of the Egyptian Mahmal en route from Cairo to Mecca, with a colourful reception of a group of pilgrims in an Egyptian desert village. The Arabic caption states that the print was made from a drawing made on the spot by Sheikh Yunus, citing Hassan Uwais in Abidin Road, Cairo, as the publisher. The true publisher, Camille Burckardt in Weißenburg, is not named: it was company policy to obscure the European provenance of these broadsheets so as to to improve their sale potential in the Middle East. All of these prints are very rare; another copy of this print commanded £21,250 at Sotheby's in 2012. Des Mondes de Papier 120.
8vo. (48), 234, (22) pp. With woodcut printer's device to title-page, woodcut initials and headpieces. Contemporary full vellum with handwritten spine title. First Hebrew edition: printed in Latin and Hebrew parallel text, with some passages in the notes in Arabic. "A pretty edition, and the only one to unite the text with a Latin translation" (cf. Brunet). Two duodecimo editions, in Hebrew only and in Latin only, were also published by Elzevier that same year. - Benjamin of Tudela, the "Wandering Jew" or "Wandering Rabbi", made a particular ethnographic study of the Jewish population of the various lands he visited on his travels. Setting out from Spain around 1160, he included Greece and the Aegean Archipelago, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baghdad, and Alexandria in his thirteen-year peregrination. Returned from his travels, he wrote his book in 1178. "One feature of his narrative is its division into what he actually saw and what he heard" (Blackmer). In Cyprus, for instance, he is stinging in his criticism of those who are "nempe Epicurei [...] Sabbathi vesperam profanant". - A clean and well-preserved copy. Willems 377. Pieters 122. Blackmer 120. Weber II, 67. Brunet I, 774 ("Belle édition"). Cf. Cobham-Jeffery p. 4. OCLC 122871307. Not in Atabey.
8vo. 2 vols. XXXI, (3), 273 pp., final blank page; IX, (3), 283 pp., 1 blank page, 24 pp. of adverts. With 2 woodcut frontispieces (included in pagination), 13 woodcut plates, and several woodcut illustrations in the text, as well as 1 folded map of Northern Arabia. Contemporary full cloth, decorated in black and gold on covers and spine. First edition. A true classic of travel literature, describing the 1879 expedition across the Nejd from Beirut, south into the Great Nefud, north to Baghdad and east to the Arabian Gulf, undertaken by Anne Blunt and her husband Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, a prominent couple of British explorers. Conveying "an ideal of an Arab aristocracy of the desert" (Nash), the travelogue describes the Blunts' interaction with sheikhs and emirs, but also their fascination with Arabian horses, including an account of the stables at Hail. Lady Blunt was, along with her husband, the founder of the Crabbet Arabian Stud, and the first European woman to journey to Central Arabia. Furthermore, the Blunts were the first Europeans to enter the Jebel Shammar in the Nejd "openly and at leisure", free to map and record geographical and physical features. - Apparently received as a gift from the author, with pencil inscription by the recipient on the flyleaf of volume I: "Lady Anne Blunt to Stephen Pearse" (?), additional pencil ownership of Flawn E. Thomas (?); a previous ownership erased. A few annotations and reading notes, also marking the date of beginning and ending each volume, between 6 and 13 October 1928. Later pencil acquisition note referencing Heffers bookshop in Cambridge (for 1/5/-), dated 11 January 1940. - Bindings a bit stained and slighty rubbed. Paper slightly foxed throughout; small tear to inner margin of the map (not touching image), small tear in the lower margin of the map repaired; tear to the contents page of vol. II repaired. Overall a good copy. Macro 555. Nash, Travellers to the Middle East 73. Howgego III, B49. Boyd/P. 16. NYPL Arabia Coll. 164. Henze I, 277.
Folio (240 x 352 mm). (56), 1203 (instead of 1207, properly 1205), (1) pp. (p. 623f. blank, wants pp. 231f. & 237f.). - (Includes, as part 2:) Sanudo, Marino. Liber secretorum fidelium crucis super Terrae Sanctae recuperatione et conservatione [...] Orientalis historiae tomus secundus. Ibid., 1611. (12), 361, (3) pp. (283f. printed as a double-page-sized folding table). Both parts with engraved printer's device to title-page. With 3 double-page-sized folding engraved maps and 2 engraved plans as well as a woodcut printer's device at the end. Slightly later full calf, spine elaborately gilt. Only edition of this early, important source book for the history of the crusades and the Kingdom of Jerusalem and its vassal states. The second parts contains the first printing of the much sought-after 14th century maps and plans by the Genoese cartographer Pietro Vesconte, previously available in manuscript copies only. "Four of the maps from Marino Sanudo's early fourteenth-century manuscript atlas were reprinted by Johann Bongars in 1611. Sanudo's planisphere [...] is one of the few examples of medieval maps based on portolano sources in printed form. It is a circular map centered on Jerusalem with the Mediterranean relatively well defined. The ocean surrounds the whole of the known world, the outer parts of which are represented by conjecture. The authorship of Marino Sanudo is not definitely established and the original manuscript has also been attributed to Pietro Vesconte" (Shirley). - One of two title variants differing only in slight changes in the typesetting (here: "Expeditionum" begins between the "O" and the "R" of "Orientalium"). Binding somewhat rubbed, hinges starting. Rather severely browned throughout due to paper stock, some waterstaining to margins, more pronounced near the end, sometimes reaching into the printed text. Stains to first title-page; the second title and its counter-leaf *6 are printed on different paper stock. Some light worming, mainly confined to margins but also touching the text near the end; occasional edge defects. A copy in modern half vellum (severely browned, with some worming, but otherwise complete) commanded 13,000 Euros at Reiss's spring 2009 auction. VD 17, 1:069728C. Atabey 127. Ioannou 49 (variant). Potthast I, 105. Tooley I, 162. Cf. Tobler 12. For the maps: Shirley 276 (with plate 217); Nordenskiöld 51 (with fig. 28); Laor 783 & 1145f. as well as Lex. Kart. 576 & 860f.
A set of nine volumes, 8vo and 4to. A rare survival: an ensemble of books, mainly medical, formerly in the library of Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire, whose famous collection was dispersed following his deposition in 1909. - Of the nine volumes in the present collection, more than half a devoted to medicine. They include a rare account of Turkish military and civil hospitals by the French physician Paul Aubry (1887), constituting an exceptional documentation of health care infrastructure in the Ottoman world. Further, there is a detailed account of the outbreak of the plague in the Levant by the Swedish polymath Jacques Graberg (1841), also describing the situation in Tangier in 1818 and 1819, which the author had witnessed himself. Finally, the collection comprises three rare volumes from the Ottoman Turkish translation of Adolf von Strümpell's medical textbook on internal diseases (1888-91), here focusing on diseases of the heart and the arteries, diseases of the brain, and diseases of the kidneys and bladder. - Additional volumes discuss the political and religious history of Japan, or the Greek Ten Thousand and their march to the Battle of Cunaxa and back in 401 BC. Other titles are more immediately connected with Turkey, giving a capsule history of the Ottoman Empire in French and Turkish verse, or and extremely rare political analysis of the Turkey's position in the critical months preceding the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78. - The volumes bear the requisite traces of the Sultan's library marks. All are presentation volumes inscribed to the Sultan by the author (some even inscribed in Turkish and Arabic), or are bound in special presentation bindings, or the in Sultan's personal library bindings with his tughra on the covers. - Sultan Abdul Hamid (Abdülhamid) II (1842-1918) was the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to exert effective contol over the fracturing state and also remembered as a poet, translator and one of the dynasty's greatest bibliophiles. While his passion for books is memorialized by the many precious donations he gave to libraries all over the world and which mostly have remained intact to this day (including the 400-volume "Abdul-Hamid II Collection of Books and Serials" gifted to the Library of Congress), his own library was dispersed in the years following his deposition: books were removed to other palaces and even sold to Western collectors; the greatest part of his collection is today preserved in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. - Detailed catalogue available upon request.
12mo. 6 vols. With 84 engraved plates, mostly aquatints, in contemporary hand colour, several folding. Contemp. red grained morocco, blindstamped and giltstamped, spine gilt, leading edges and inner dentelle gilt. All edges gilt. First edition, the rare coloured issue in contemporary French master bindings. - Contains a large number of very pretty views and charming genre scenes, also showing costumes, arms, tools, etc. Accompanied by notes by Jean Joseph Marcel (1776-1854), director of the French imperial printshop at Cairo. Immaculate, sumptuously bound copy from the library of Mary Lecomte du Noüy with her gilt morocco bookplate on all pastedowns. Uncommonly well preserved; most copies in the great travel collections were incomparably the worse for wear: the Atabey copy was described as "rubbed, upper joint of vol. VI wormed" and was uncoloured, as were most of the press run and all recent copies showing up in trade or at auction. Atabey 148. Blackmer 200. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 87. Röhricht 1631. Lipperheide Ma 10. Colas 438. Hiler 113.
Folio (226 x 312 mm). 147 (instead of 148) unnumbered ff. (lacking the final blank). With numerous red and blue Lombardic initials (some up to eight lines high), full-page title woodcut, 8 woodcuts and 6 woodcut alphabets in the text, 2 woodcut initials (1 armorial), small woodcut printer's device, and 7 folding woodcut views (some with text or woodcut illustrations on verso). Finely gilt maroon shagreen binding, ca. 1820, with giltstamped title and decorations to spine; covers stamped in gilt and blind with pretty floral borders and gilt decorations to corners; leading edges and inner dentelle gilt. Red endpapers. All edges gilt. Editio princeps of the first modern travelogue of a journey from Venice to the Holy Land, and "the first illustrated book of travel ever printed [...] [T]he folding panoramic views [...] are the first authentic representations of the famous places depicted, i. e., the ports usually visited by every pilgrim of the period [... The] artist was Erhard Reuwich [..., who] graphically record[ed] the impressions of the voyage" (Davies). The splendid panoramic folding views show Venice (ca. 160 cms long!), Porec and Corfu (both ca. 40 cms), Methoni, Crete and Rhodes (all ca. 80 cms) as well as Jerusalem (ca. 130 cms). - This work is considered the first authentic Western source for the Near and Middle East, as the illustrations were prepared from actual observation of the lands and people described. Breydenbach travelled to the Holy Land in 1483/84 with a large party including the artist Reuwich from Utrecht. Following the traditional route, they travelled from Venice to Corfu, Modon, Crete, Rhodes and Jaffa before arriving in Jerusalem, and then through the Sinai desert to Mt. Sinai, Cairo, and Alexandria on the return journey. The book quickly became extremely popular and was translated into French, Dutch and Spanish before 1500. It includes illustrations of Middle Eastern and Bedouin costume, a glossary of common Arabic words, and pictures of animals encountered on the journey (including a crocodile, a camel, and even a unicorn), as well as an Arabic alphabet - the latter of especial importance for being the first of its kind ever to see print: "The first representation of Arabic letters in a printed book was done in Germany; this was the woodcut of the Arabic alphabet in Bernhard von Breydenbach's 'Peregrinatio'" (Toomer). - Title-page trimmed to the neatline, remargined on all sides, a narrow strip along the left edge as well as a tiny ornament at the bottom supplied in meticulous ink. A témoin to upper corner of a single leaf (not touching text), another leaf showing a short tear near the gutter and traces of old glue; lower corner of final leaf remargined. Dry-cleaned throughout very carefully, the paper retaining light browning and occasional fingerstains. The views are very well preserved throughout and present as entirely complete, although some have small portions supplied from other copies of the same edition or are professionally retouched: some 22 cms in the middle section of the view of Venice are barely noticeably supplied in ink, and three segments are from another copy; tiny flaws in the folds. One fold in the view of Methoni is rebacked with a tiny gap. One half of Crete and Rhodes each supplied from another copy, seguing into each other in professionally drawn ink retouchings measuring ca. 2 cms. Right half of the view of Rhodes trimmed to neatline and remargined; a few professionally restored edge tears. The spectacular view of Jerusalem, frequently lacking, is complete and uncommonly well preserved, showing only are few well-restored edge tears. Altogether an outstanding copy on strong, unusually wide-margined paper, splendidly bound in the early 19th century. - The present first edition is extremely rare in the trade, usually appearing only in severely mutilated copies or even in fragments comprising no more than a few leaves. The only similarly complete copy in auction records since 1900 was the Perrins-Wardington copy (complete), sold at Sotheby's in 2005 for £265,600 (today, ca. EUR 500,000), while the Consul Smith copy sold at Christie's in 2018 lacked one quire consisting of the Jerusalem view and 2 woodcut scenes, as well as about half of Venice and Rhodes views. - From the library of the great English bibliophile Thomas Edward Watson, 1st Bart. (1851-1921) with his engraved bookplate ("St. Mary's Lodge, Newport Monmouthshire") on the front pastedown; old bookseller's catalogue clipping mounted to flyleaf and pencil annotation: "This is a far finer copy than the B[ritish] M[useum] Copy ..., that being badly coloured & much wormed". Last in a noted German private collection and acquired directly. HC 3956. Goff B-1189. GW 5075. Proctor 156. Pellechet 2979. BMC I, 43. BSB-Ink B-909. Klebs 220.1. Schreiber 3628. Bodleian B-552. Hubay 468. Schäfer 84. Oates 52. Davies, Breydenbach, no. I. Fairfax Murray 92. Campbell (Maps) 65. Hillard 486. Aquilon 181. Arnoult 366. Parguez 275. Péligry 226. Torchet 228. Zehnacker 577. ISTC ib01189000.
8vo. XIV, 150 pp. Black full calf with giltstamped spine title. A history of the creation of the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, discussing the historical and legal background of both countries, a comparison with the Trucial Sheikhdoms, the establishment of the Neutral Zone, and the ongoing oil operations in the Zone, with an appendix of legal documents. Based on an unfinished manuscript left by the author upon his death in 1959, the volume was completed posthumously by staff of the Middle East Research and Publishing Center. Dedicated to John Paul Getty. - The Neutral Zone, a 5,770 km² area between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, had been left undefined when the border was established by in 1922. Partitioning negotiations finally commenced when the rulers of both countries met and decided, in October 1960, that the Neutral Zone should be divided. On 7 July 1965, the two governments signed an agreement, which took effect on 25 July 1966, to partition the Zone adjoining their respective territories. Ratification followed on 18 January 1970. - Quite rare; traced to 19 institutions including 6 on COPAC. OCLC 32070547.
Small folio (320 x 246 mm). 3 vols. XXIV, 532, (2) pp. with heliogravure frontispiece, 548 illustrations, 40 plates and maps in the text, and 2 extra maps on 4 ff. XII, 358, (4) pp. with 315 illustrations and 9 plates. XIV, 403, (1) pp. with 257 illustrations and 4 plates. Publisher's original half vellum and green boards. First edition: rare. A remarkably well-illustrated archaeological survey of sites in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, particularly valued for its account of Petra and of the palace of Mshatta in Jordan, a great monument of early Islamic art. With over 1100 half tone illustrations, many full-page, and numerous splendidly produced plates (some folding or double-page, a few coloured). The outstanding feature of the Mshatta palace was the intricately carved decoration on its facade. Today the complete facade, built in the mid-eighth century, exists only in Brünnow's photographs (see vol. II). - Bindings slightly rubbed; upper joints of vol. III slightly split; stamp of the Meadville Theological School library to title page. A good, clean copy. NYPL Arabia Coll. 166. OCLC 24223621.
Large folio (260 x 395 mm). (20), 398, (8) pp. With engraved frontispiece, engraved author's portrait, large engraved folding map of the Mediterranean Sea, 103 engraved plates (many double-page and folding, and often containing more than one illustration) and 18 engravings in text (totally containing 218 illustrations, numbered A & 1-210). The engraved plates are all after drawings by De Bruyn and contain 15 plates engraved by Jan Luyken and 1 by Casper Luyken, all but one unsigned. 18th-century, gold-tooled, tanned goatskin, marbled edges; rebacked, with original backstrip laid down and modern endpapers. First edition, large-paper copy, of this beautifully illustrated account of De Bruyn's first journey through Egypt, Syria, the Holy Land, Rhodes, Cyprus, Scio and Turkey. - The Dutch traveller and painter Cornelis De Bruyn (1652-1726/28) left the Netherlands in 1674 to travel through the Levant by way of Italy. He stayed in the Levant for seven years before settling in Italy in 1685 and returning to the Netherlands in 1693. The work is especially valued for its engravings after De Bruyn's own drawings, executed by such well-known artists as Jan and Caper Luyken, including folding panoramas of Alexandria, Sattalia, Constantinople, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Rhodes and Chios. The publication was soon followed by editions in English and French. - The present copy is printed on large paper from a single stock, watermarked: fleur-de-lys on a crowned shield above 4 and WR = WK, with a trimmed leaf size measuring 396 x 259 mm (not in Heawood or Laurentius). - With some occasional spots, some folds and edges of the plates reinforced or mounted on new stubs; a very good copy. The binding rebacked as noted and with some wear to the tooling. Atabey 159. Howgego, to 1800, B177. Klaversma & Hannema 311. Tiele, Bibl. 207. Cf. Gnirrep, De Levant in een kleur (1997).
8vo. 2 vols. VIII, 472, XXXIV. (4), V, (6)-238 pp. With 2 lithogr. frontispieces, 9 lithogr. plates on Chine appliqué and 1 folding lithogr. map of Central Arabia and Egypt. Contemporary tan calf bindings, spines renewed in period style. First edition. The second volume - and the map - are devoted entirely to the so-called "Nedjed Country". - "The first political and commercial treaty between Great Britain and Persia was concluded in 1801, when the East India Company sent John Malcolm to the Court of Fath Ali Shah. Persia undertook to attack the Afghans if they were to move against India, while the British undertook to come to the defence of Persia if they were attacked by either the Afghans or the French. When the Russians intensified their attacks on the Caucasian Provinces in 1803 annexing large territories, Fath Ali Shah appealed to the British for help, but was refused on the grounds that Russia was not included in the Treaty. The Persians thus turned to the French and concluded the Treaty of Finkenstein in 1807. It was against this background that Harford Jones, who was the chief resident at Basra for the East India Company, was sent to Persia by the Foreign Office in 1809 [...] The French who had now entered into a treaty with Russia (the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807) had lost interest in Persia and removed their political and military missions. Thus the British were able to conclude another treaty with Persia (the Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, also called the Treaty of Tehran) which bound Britain to assist Persia in case any European nation invaded her (even if Britain had a treaty with that nation). This treaty was not honoured by the British after the first Persian-Russian War" (Ghani). Volume 2 is devoted exclusively to the Wahhabis, tracing their history from the mid-eighteenth century to their defeat by Egyptian Ottoman forces at the site of the Wahhabi capital, Dariyah (Dereyah), in 1818. - Rare: the only other copy in a contemporary binding on the market within the last 30 years was the Burrell copy (wanting half titles and rebacked; Sotheby's, Oct 14, 1999, lot 127, £8,000). Only slightly browned and foxed (occasionally affecting plates), but altogether fresh, in an appealing full calf binding. Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 606. BM IV:457 (941). Wilson 33. Cf. Ghani 53f. (reprint). Diba 79.
Small folio (190 x 272 mm). 4 vols. (4), 682 pp. (4), XXV, (1), 649, (1) pp. (4), 700 pp. VIII, 676 pp. Modern green half leather over marbled boards with giltstamped title to spine. Monumental French translation of the great hadith collection known as the "Sahih al-Buchari", "in later times esteemed almost as highly as the Koran itself" (Brockelmann). It ranks as the first in importance of the six major canonical hadith collections, its authority and holiness surpassed only by the Holy Qur'an. - The French Arabist Octave Victor Houdas (1840-1916) taught at the École des langues orientales. His translation, the first complete edition, appeared within the "Publications de l'École des langues orientales vivantes", IVe série, vols. III-VI. - A few insignificant edge flaws, but on the whole a finely preserved set, uniformly bound in green half morocco. A milestone in French Islamic scholarship. Rare. GAL S I, 261. OCLC 493784348.
Large 4to (220 x 277 mm). IX, (3), 439, (1) pp. With an engraved map. Near-contemporary brown half calf (giltstamped spine recently rebacked). First edition, posthumously edited by William Ousely. With this work, Burckhardt submitted what was at the time the fullest and most thorough account of the various nomadic tribes of Arabia, including a history of the Wahhabis from their first appearance until 1816 (cf. Henze). A two-volume octavo edition followed immediately, as did a German translation. - The Swiss explorer Burckhardt (1784-1817) travelled through Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Nubia, and the Arabian Peninsula. Under the name "Sheikh Ibrahim", he crossed the Red Sea to Jeddah, passed an examination on Muslim law, and participated in the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. He died in Cairo and is buried there in the Muslim cemetery. He left his 350-volume library to Cambridge University; his diaries were acquired by the Royal Geographical Society. - Light waterstain to the lower corner of the map, otherwise a very good, wide-margined copy of this rare work. Embacher 57. Howgego II, p. 83, B76. Gay 3606. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 106. Engelmann 104. Brunet I, 1401f. Graesse I, 575. Cf. Macro 626; Henze I, 406f.; Hiler 127 (two-volume edition).
Large 4to (278 x 228 mm). XVI, 478 pp. With five lithographed maps (one folding). Contemporary full calf with gilt spine, two labels, and cover borders. Gilt inner dentelle, marbled endpapers. All edges marbled. First edition (the second of the same year was in two volumes, octavo). Burckhardt travelled disguised as an Arab, making his notes clandestinely. This work deals primarily with his travels to Mecca and Djidda, Medina and Yembo. The Lausanne-born Burckhardt (1784-1817) was a remarkable character, the first Westerner to visit the Holy Cities. In the guise of a pilgrim "he proceeded to perform the rites of pilgrimage at Mekka, go round the Kaaba, sacrifice, &c., and in every respect acquitted himself as a good Muslim. No Christian or European had ever accomplished this feat before; and the penalty of discovery would probably have been death. [...] Burckhardt possessed the highest qualifications of a traveller. Daring and yet prudent, a close and accurate observer, with an intimate knowledge of the people among whom he travelled, their manners and their language, he was able to accomplish feats of exploration which to others would have been impossible" (Stanley Lane-Poole, in DNB VII, 293f.). - Extremeties quite severely rubbed and bumped. Spine shows traces of early repairs, using the original material. Several tears to the half-title, light foxing to beginning and end, otherwise internally a very good copy from the library of the Rev. Thomas Thurlow (1788-1874), Rector of Boxford, Suffolk, with his engraved bookplate to the front pastedown. Rare. Macro 627. Howgego II, p. 82f., B76. Weber I, 168. Henze I, 407. Gay 3606. Graesse I, 575. Cf. Blackmer 239. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 106. Not in Atabey.
Large 4to (282 x 230 mm). (4), XXIII, (3), 668 pp. With lithographed portrait frontispiece, 3 engraved maps (2 folding), and 3 engraved plans. Contemporary full calf with gilt spine, two labels, and cover borders. Gilt inner dentelle, marbled endpapers. First edition. Posthumously edited by William Leake, these journals describe Burckhardt's various journeys between 1810 and 1816. It was at Aleppo that he studied Arabic in preparation for his later travels (clandestinely, in Arab guise under the cognomen Sheikh Ibrahim) and he toured Syria, the Lebanon and Palestine. Burckhardt had been recruited by Sir Joseph Banks on behalf of the African Association to carry out these explorations, but unfortunately he died in 1819 before he was able to complete the entire project. - Binding somewhat rubbed along extremeties; hinges and upper spine-end repaired. A little browning and foxing near the beginning, otherwise internally fine. The portrait shows Burckhardt "in his Arab Bernous, sketched at Cairo Feb. 1817 by H. Salt, Esq.". Macro 628. Blackmer 237. Atabey 166. Aboussouan 174. Tobler 141. Röhricht 1627. Weber I, 107. Howgego II, p. 82, B76. Henze I, 406. Brunet I, 1401. Graesse I, 575. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 106.
8vo. VIII, 488 pp. With coloured frontispiece map and 12 plates. Original dark grey decorated cloth with bevelled edges, ruled and lettered in silver and gold. First edition. - Lady Burton's second book, detailing a journey made with her husband Sir Richard Francis Burton to India via Arabia and Egypt between 1875 and 1876. Although the work is predominantly focused on India, there is a chapter devoted to Jeddah and some notes on Trieste, where this particular voyage began. - Provenance: Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset, with the author's presentation inscription on the half-title: "The Duchess of Somerset with affecti[onate] love from Isabel Burton / 21 Feb 1879". The beautiful Jane Georgiana Seymour, Duchess of Somerset (1809-84), was the granddaughter of the Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. - Neat restoration to extremities and inner hinges. A fine association copy. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 108. OCLC 64763306.
3 volumes. 8vo. XVI, 388 pp. (2), IV, 426 pp. XII, 448 pp. Half-title in vol. 3, without publisher's ads. 4 maps & plans (3 folding), 5 colour lithographed plates, 8 tinted lithographed plates. Later half morocco over marbled paper covered boards, bound by Zaehnsdorf, spine with raised bands in six compartments, lettered in the second and fourth, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. First edition of Burton's classic account of his journey across the Arabian peninsula. In the fall of 1852, Burton first proposed to the Royal Geographical Society an expedition to central Arabia with the intent on visiting the holy cities. His request was denied by the RGS and the East India Company as being too dangerous for a westerner, though he was funded to study Arabic in Egypt. Upon arrival there, in April 1853, disguised as a Pashtun and travelling under the pseudonym Mirza Abdullah, Burton made the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. "The actual pilgrimage began with a journey on camel-back from Cairo to Suez. Then followed twelve days in a pilgrim ship on the Red Sea from Suez to Yambu, the port of El-Medinah. So far the only risk was from detection by his companions. Now came the dangers of the inland road, infested by Bedawin robbers. The journey from Yambu to El-Medinah, thence to Meccah, and finally to the sea again at Jeddah, occupied altogether from 17 July to 23 Sept., including some days spent in rest, and many more in devotional exercises. From Jeddah, Burton returned to Egypt in a British steamer, intending to start afresh for the interior of Arabia via Muwaylah. But this second project was frustrated by ill-health, which kept him in Egypt until his period of furlough was exhausted. The manuscript ... was sent home from India, and seen through the press by a friend in England. It is deservedly the most popular of Burton's books ... as a story of bold adventure, and as lifting a veil from the unknown, its interest will never fade" (DNB). Indeed, the work would be described by T.E. Lawrence as "a most remarkable work of the highest value." Abbey, Travel 368. Penzer, pp. 43-50. Macro, 640. Howgego IV, B95.
Folio (45 x 29 cm). (2) (half title and title), (4) (description of plates), 28 pp. With 20 plates (including a map of Northern Africa and the region around Siwa). Very nice contemporary half calf, spine richly gilt. Map slightly cropped in right-hand margin, but only touching frame, no loss of picture. A fine, very attractive copy of a particularly scarce work. - (Bound after:) Cailliaud, Frédéric. Voyage a l'Oasis de Thèbes et dans les Déserts situés a l'orient et a l'occident de la Thébaide, fait pendant les années 1815, 1816, 1817 et 1818. Contenant: 1. Le Voyage à l'Oasis de Dakel, par M. le Chevalier Drovetti. 2. Le Journal du premier Voyage de M. Cailliaud en Nubie. 3. Des recherches sur les Oasis, sur les Mines d'émeraude, et sur l'ancienne Route du commerce entre le Nil et la mer Rouge. Paris, l'Imprimerie Royale, 1821. XVII, 120 pp. With 24 (1 colour) plates (including 2 maps). I) Voyage y l'oasis de Syouah: An important work on Siwa and at the same time the only source on Drovetti's research in the oasis - a particularly rare book! - In September 1819, Cailliaud travelled from Fayun westward to Siwa, where he carried out important research which was the foundation of the scientific discovery and exploration of Siwa oasis. In 1820 Bernardino Drovetti arrrived in Siwa together with Mehmed Ali's expedition. Accompanied by 2 draughtsmen and protected by the Egyptian troops, Drovetti was able to explore the oasis and to have plans and views drawn. Thus, he managed to supplement the picture Cailliaud had given of Siwa. He was also the first European to visit the village of Agharmi. Drovetti's and Cailliaud's reports were sent to Jomard who edited and published them. - II) Voyage à l'oasis de Thèbes: In 1815, Cailliaud travelled to Nubia together with B. Drovetti. When he had returned, Mehmed Ali advised him to explore the adjacent desert regions near Egypt. First he went east through the Arabian desert to the Red Sea. After seven days he reached the diamond mines at Djebel Subara. From Djebel Kebrit, his easternmost point, he went back to the Nile. In June 1818 he went east of Esna to the Great Oasis (Kharga), which, although Poncet und Browne had already seen it, had still remained unexplored. - The plates show Sekket, Douch El Qualah, Chargeh, El Gabouet, the ruins of Chargeh, etc. Also contains the only publication of Bernardino Drovetti's 'Le Voyage à l'Oasis du Dakel'. Drovetti was, after Edmonstone, the second explorer to reach Dakel. - A separate second volume of the Voyage a l'oasis de Thèbes was issued in 1824. I: Henze I, 474/475 (Cailliaud) and II, 97/98 (Drovetti). Ibrahim Hilmy I, 113. Not in Blackmer. - II: Cf. Henze I, 474 ff. Blackmer 268. Gay 1967. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 113. Embacher 66.
8vo. (2), 78, (6) pp. With an engraved folding map of the Arabian Peninsula, 3 engraved folding plates, and an engraved title-vignette. Later full cloth. Rare first Dutch edition of the travelogue of a 16th-century sea voyage around the Arabian Peninsula. Castro's voyage took him from Socotra up the Red Sea. He landed on both the African and the Arabian coast before reaching Suez; his account includes descriptions of the various ports he encountered en route as well as observations on the naming of the Red Sea. - Dom João de Castro (1500-48) was a naval officer and later Viceroy of Portuguese India. In 1538 he embarked on his first voyage to India, arriving at Goa and immediately proceeding to the defense of Diu. Castro was responsible for the overthrow of Mahmud, King of Gujarat, whose interests threatened Portuguese control of the Goan coast. Castro died in Goa in 1548 and was initially buried there, but his remains were later exhumed and transferred to Portugal. - Traces of glue near the gutter of the title-page, but a good copy in a modern binding. Only three copies traceable in auction records. BMC V, 168:149. OCLC 224637211. Cf. Scholberg, Bibliography of Goa & the Portuguese in India, DC7. Avila Perez 1562. Welsh 4780 (other eds.).
Small folio (27 x 18 cm). XVIII, 170 pp. (pp. VI and XVIII blank). With 14 sepia photographic plates, 1 folding facsimile letter, 2 folding graphs, a plate with 6 pie charts and 1 illustration (also in red) showing schematically a smuggling box. Original pink paper wrappers. Exceptionally rare work on drug trafficking in Egypt in the 1930s and an important example of the "war on drugs" of the author, who was director of the Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau. Thomas Wentworth Russell (1879-1954), sometimes better known as Russell Pasha, was a police officer in service of Egypt who was appalled by the increasing drug trafficking in Egypt and the high amount of drug addicts in the country. He founded the Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau (CNIB), making it his mission to rid Egypt of especially what he called "white drugs" (cocaine, morphine, heroin), but also of "black drugs" (hashish, opium). Russell can be considered as one of the most important anti-drug campaigners in Egypt in his time and after, as he really raised awareness for the rising problem. In this work, Russell describes how drugs are smuggled in large quantities from abroad to Egypt. In many chapters, he extensively describes the foreign sources of supply (discussing not only important drug barons, but also mentioning specific ships and other means of transport which smuggled drugs), cases in which weapons were used by traffickers, on people involved in the trade, on traffickers and their methods of smuggling (among others in shoes, camel saddles, etc.), on addiction and the social effects and death rates, and many more. It is a scarce and outstanding example of Russell's anti-drug campaign, extensively describing drug trafficking in Egypt in the 1930s, being well-illustrated with photographs of drug barons, users, traffickers and methods of concealment. - Presentation copy to the English poet and dramatist John Drinkwater with an inscription by Russelll on the front wrapper ("John Drinkwater / With compliments from the director / Tho Russell / 24/3/33" / [Arabic script]") and his red stamp next to the inscription. - Spine worn, front wrapper detached, covers with light residual dampstain. A highly uncommon survival. Not in WorldCat.
Original outline colour. Dissected and laid on linen in two sections, together 940 x 1540 mm. A two-sheet wall map showing Prussia, Turkey, Egypt and Abyssinia in the west, and the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, Persia, Arabia and Somalia in the east. Two inset maps show the routes from Siré to Gondar and from Gondar to the sources of the Nile. According to the inscription, the map is based on that of "the late J. B. Laborde" (Jean-Benjamin de Laborde [1734-94], a traveller and musician), with amendments; however we have been unable to trace a map of the region by him. - The vast map was published to satisfy French interest when their seemingly-unstoppable General Bonaparte turned his attention to the conquest of Egypt in 1798. Napoleon had captured Malta en route to Egypt, and the oval title vignette shows him overseeing the burial of the French dead under Pompey's Pillar after the capture of the important port city of Alexandria (July 1798). - After the defeat of the Mameluk army at the Battle of the Pyramids it was Napoleon's intention to subdue the rest of the Ottoman Empire before moving to threaten British interests in India. However, as the political situation in Paris was deteriorating, Napoleon decided to leave his army in Egypt in 1799, returning to France to become First Consul. His army was less fortunate, surrendering to the British at Alexandria in 1801. - This map is very scarce: the French citizens' interest in maps of the Orient evaporated as quickly as Napoleon's.
12mo. (10), 180 pp. With engraved additional pictorial title and small woodcut ornament to printed title; woodcut head- and tail-pieces and decorative initials. Contemporary full vellum. Extremely rare first edition of this history of gemstones, corals and pearls, with plentiful references to the Arabian Gulf ("ou Mer d'Elcatif"), and specifically to Bahrain, Al-Qatif, Muscat, and Ormus, including separate chapters on pearls, their valuation, and the process of pearl-fishing. Carter lists Chappuzeau's work, which draws strongly on Tavernier, under the "key European accounts", quoting his mention of the Gulf as a major source of pearls: "The most significant pearl fishing ground is on the coast of Arabia Felix, between the towns of Julfar and Catif" (p. 94). - Chappuzeau's "text is in two parts, the first, of six chapters, describes gemstones beginning with diamond, then those of color, pearls, coral, amber yellow stones, the metals, ambergris, bezoar, indigo and other 'rich productions' of the East and West Indies, and including salts. The second part describes the places referred to in the first part, from Abyssinia to Visapur [...] Chappuzeau provides information on places in India where diamonds are found, how they are mined, and prices demanded for diamonds and other gemstones. The method of pricing pearls is also given along with a table of values [... This chapter] is famous for its perpetuation of the story that pearls generate from dew drops falling into the gaping shells of the pearl oysters" (Sinkankas). Also includes references to mining in Peru and trade from the West Indies and Americas. - Spine somewhat dust-soiled; interior shows some browning throughout. Provenance: Contemporary ink ownership "F. Baker" (?) to title-page. Latterly removed from the Library of the Birmingham Assay Office, one of the four assay offices in the United Kingdom, with their inconspicuous library stamp to the flyleaf. Vastly rarer than the 1671 English edition: no other copy seen in the trade. Sinkankas 1251. Sabin 12010. Cioranescu (17th c.) 18639. OCLC 78250964. Carter, Sea of Pearls, pp. 94 & 106. Cf. Hoover 217; Roller/Goodman I, 222; Macclesfield 512 (for the 1671 English translation).
8vo. (4), VI, 71 pp., final blank page. With folding map in colour and 10 black-and-white photo illustrations and maps on plates. Original illustrated wrappers printed in red and black. Only edition, rare. - Report on the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, with spectacular views of the holy city and the Kaaba, as well as the Beirut quarantine hospital. The French-trained Lebanese physican and medical historian Ahmed Chérif discusses not only the history and rituals of the Hajj, but also focuses on aspects of health and hygiene during the week-long mass gathering. - Occasional foxing to margins. Two temporary block-stitches to gutter; a few pages and plates loose. Untrimmed copy much in the original condition as issued, awaiting its first proper binding. Macro 16. OCLC 936820237.
Folio (245 x 362 mm). 6 vols. (12), LXXII, (4), 668, (1) pp. (4), 743, (1) pp. 793, (1) pp. (2), IV, 5-780 pp. (4), 708 pp. 824, (104) pp. Title printed in red and black. With 187 engraved plates (many folding) and 9 engravings in the text (showing maps, plans, views, costumes, flora, fauna, scenes, portraits etc., including 2 bound as frontispieces), as well as numerous woodcuts in the text (showing arms, seals, devices, coastal views, details, machinery etc.). Uniform full calf with red labels to spine (gilding oxydized). Third and best edition of this important and profusely illustrated collection of travel reports, compiled by the brothers Awnsham and John Churchill, based on Hakluyt and Purchas. It includes the accounts of Martin Baumgarten (Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Syria), Thomas Roe, Philipp Balde and Johan Nieuhoff (East Indies, including a detailed account of the north-eastern coast of Arabia, with a description of pearl fishing in Bahrain and mentioning Julfar, Qatar, Sir Bani Yas, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras al-Khaimah, Amalgavine, and other places of interest along the coastline), J. Gemelli Careri (Turkey, Persia, India), Nicholas Rolamb (Constantinople), John Barbot (West Africa, with a chapter on "Mahomet and his Alcoran"), as well as of Yemen and various journeys to China, Korea, Greenland, Iceland, Africa, North and South America (including Columbus). - "This is a very valuable collection, both for its range of coverage and for the fact that it gives the original accounts [...] The third edition is considered to be best because of its greater inclusiveness and its copious index" (Hill). Two further volumes were issued separately in 1745, republished in 1752. - The count of the illustrations is notoriously complicated: the "List of the Copper Plates" counts 305 illustrations and maps, of which as many as four are placed on a single plate, and some are placed within the text. Compared to this list, the present set lacks 52 illustrations, or ca. 20 plates, whereas the first volume contains 5 additional plates not called for in the List. Three of the maps (Africa, Asia, America) which the List announces for the first volume are in fact bound in volumes IV-VI. The introduction, a "History of Navigation from its Original to this time", is likely one of the final works of the philosopher John Locke, whose publisher and financial manager Awnsham Churchill had been (while the attribution has been called into question, the text was included in Locke's Complete Works). - Provenance: Byrdie McNeill, Mt. Edgecumbe, Alaska (her stamps). Bindings professionally repaired. Some browning; some edge defects, tears and paper flaws, but generally well-preserved. Cox, I, 10. Hill 295. Sabin 13017. Shirley G.CHUR-1d. Alden/L. 744/62. Borba de Moraes I, 158. Landwehr, VOC 260 (note). Cf. National Maritime Museum Cat. I, 33.