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1065 x 578 mm. Cloth-backed engraved view on 2 sheets joined, letterpress text pasted below (4 columns in Italian: "Descrizione della Città di Alessandria d'Egitto") with publisher's imprint. Matted. Unrecorded in the standard bibliographies and without counterpart in western libraries: a unique, large-scale view of Alexandria as seen from the north. Formerly the most powerful city of the ancient world after Rome, Alexandria came under Ottoman rule in 1517 and subsequently lost much of its importance to the new port of Rashid (Rosette), 40 miles east, though it would regain some of its former prominence with the construction of the Mahmoudiyah Canal in 1807. In Longhi's engraving, the Ottoman influence may be discerned in the people's clothing as well as in the city's architecture. Within the city are several mosques; the ancient obelisks are shown crowned with crescents. On the river Nile, which flows through the city and underneath the walls, the view depicts numerous trade boats and sailors. Outside the walls lies Pompey's Pillar. The Italian letterpress text pasted under the engraving provides mostly historical and geographical information. - Longhi's panorama seems to draw various aspects from previous works to create its own original representation of the Egyptian city. The perspective is similar to that used in Pierre Belon's 1553 "Observations" and in Braun and Hogenberg's 1575 "Alexandria, Vetustissimum Aegypti Emporium, Amplissima Civitas", published in their famous "Civitates orbis terrarum", but also to that in Mallet's smaller, almost certainly later (1683) view of Alexandria. Apart from the Braun/Hogenberg map, however, the principal model for Longhi's view was likely his own view of "Gran Cairo", apparently published simultaneously: the bird's-eye view and general composition correspond to this similarly rare engraving, which was probably based on a 1549 woodcut panorama created by Matteo Pagano in Venice. - According to scholars, Gioseffo (Giuseppe) Longhi (1620-91) issued a series of views of Italian and foreign cities between 1654 and 1674. A publisher, bookseller and archiepiscopal printer, he was active in Bologna from 1650 to the time of his death. Not only did he publish maps, but he was also a prolific literary editor, notably publishing all the dramatic works of the Italian playwright Giacinto Cicognini. - An excellent specimen. Cf. Tooley, Mapmakers III, 150 (for Giuseppe Longhi).
945 x 620 mm. Engraved view on 2 sheets joined, letterpress text pasted below (4 columns in Italian, 4 columns in Latin: "Descrittione del gran Cairo [...] Cairi quae olim Babylon") with publisher's imprints. Watermark Panzano. Unrecorded in the standard bibliographies and without counterpart in western libraries, this unique, large-scale view of Cairo reflects the economic and cultural effervescence of the second-largest city in the Empire: under Ottoman rule since 1517 and having expanded south and west from its nucleus around the Citadel, Cairo in the latter half of the 17th century was second only to Constantinople. The Ottoman influence may be discerned in the people's clothing in the foreground as well as in the city's architecture. On the river Nile, the map depicts numerous trade boats and sailors. To the left are soldiers battling as part of a tournament; on the right are the Sphinx (wearing a necklace!) and the famous pyramids of Giza: those of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, as well as the smaller pyramids. The centre of the city shows numerous mosques and gardens. The letterpress text pasted under the engraving provides mostly historical and geographical information (in Italian and Latin). - Longhi's panorama seems to draw various aspects from previous works to create its own original representation of the Egyptian city. Indeed, it bears some resemblance to Braun and Hogenberg's 1572 "Cairos, quae olim Babylon, Aegypti maxima urbs", published in their famous "Civitates orbis terrarum". There are also similarities with Donato Bertelli's "La gran città del Cairo" (Venice 1575), as well as with the map of "Le Grand Caire" produced by the French soldier and traveller Henri de Beauveau (published in his "Relation journaliere du voyage du Levant", Nancy 1615). Ultimately, these plans probably all derive from a 1549 woodcut panorama credited to Matteo Pagano (or a Venetian engraving derived from it), as they all depict the city from the same viewpoint and on a similar scale. Longhi's map even takes up some of the ornaments of the Braun/Hogenberg map, such as the two people riding on a horse and a donkey in the foreground, though the antiquities as well as the numerous irrigation wheels are here shown in much greater detail. - According to scholars, Gioseffo (Giuseppe) Longhi (1620-91) issued a series of views of Italian and foreign cities between 1654 and 1674. A publisher, bookseller and archiepiscopal printer, he was active in Bologna from 1650 to the time of his death. Not only did he publish maps, but he was also a prolific literary editor, notably publishing all the dramatic works of the Italian playwright Giacinto Cicognini. - Some small marginal tears repaired; slight marginal fraying to upper left. Cf. Tooley, Mapmakers III, 150 (for Giuseppe Longhi); Schulz, Venice 70 (for Arrigoni/Bertarelli).
Colour lithograph map, 765 x 495 mm, trimmed to neat line. A rare separately issued official map, with text in Ottoman Turkish throughout, depicting the route of the Hejaz Railway. Following a route proposed by the eminent Turkish engineer Mukhtar Bey and surveyed by the cavalry officers Umar Zaki and Hasan Mu'ayyin, the epic project, funded by subscriptions from the global Islamic faithful, completed a rail link from Damascus to Medina by 1908. Intended to continue to Mecca but never completed, it nevertheless briefly allowed many thousands of pilgrims to make the Hajj in relative comfort. - Old folds and creases, some short closed tears, tiny chips to neat line, some light staining. Some remnants of tape and old private collector's stamps to verso. Still in good condition but for partial loss of lower left corner, subsequently collaged with a contemporary Ottoman colour lithographed map of the Arabian Peninsula.
4to (160 x 244 mm). Arabic manuscript on polished oriental paper. (252) pp., 21 lines, per extensum. Black ink with red underlinings and emphases. With numerous red ink diagrams in the text and margins. Contemporary blindstamped full calf, restored and spine rebacked. A fine mid-17th century Arabic manuscript of Euclid's famous "Elements of Geometry", the "oldest mathematical textbook in the world still in common use today" (PMM). The translation is by the great Persian polymath Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi (1201-74), after whom the lunar crater "Nasireddin" is named. Written in Central Asia, this manuscript comprises fifteen books rather than the usual thirteen. Some of the marginal diagrams may have been added later. - Paper browned and somewhat mottled throughout, less so near the end of the volume. The restored binding uses the stamped original cover material. Cf. GAL I, 510, 23.
Tall 8vo (136 x 258 mm). Arabic manuscript on unsophisticated oriental paper. 206 leaves. 20 lines, black and occasional red ink with underlinings in red. Restored red morocco oriental binding with blind-tooled medaillons to both covers, using oder material from a shorter binding. The fourth and final part of Ibn Sina's famous "Kitab Al-Shifa'" ("The Book of Healing"), a great scientific and philosophical encyclopedia that covers logic, natural sciences, mathematics including astronomy, and, as here, metaphysics and religion. - Browned throughout with occasional waterstaining. Early waqf stamp near the colophon. In all a good manuscript, copied in Safavid Persia by Shafi' Muhammad bin Muhammad al-Qayni. GAL I, 454, 18.
Small folio (ca. 210 x 314 mm). (10), 308, (12) pp. With engraved title-page and 5 full-page engraved illustrations in the text, as well as several woodcut initials and woodcut printer's device. Contemporary full vellum. All edges red. Second, improved Latin edition of this famous account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land by the Polish Prince Mikolaj Krzysztof Radziwill (1549-1616), frequently translated and reprinted. First published in 1601; the present edition is corrected and expanded. - During his two-year journey from 1582 to 1584 Radziwill visited not only Palestine, but also Syria, Egypt, Crete, Cyprus, Italy and Greece. "Radziwill, in his account of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Egypt, described the ethnic diversity of the inhabitants of these lands. Critics underline the fact that his descriptions were ethnographic in character and quite objective. His 'Peregrynacja' was published in Latin and in Polish and apparently was quite widely read" (S. Grodz, Islam in Polish-Lithuanian/Ottoman Encounters, in: The Character of Christian-Muslim Encounter, Leiden 2015, p. 234). - The emblematic illustrations show sailboats in a fierce storm, such as Radziwill himself encountered, as well as appropriate Biblical quotations in banners decorated with maritime elements, but also a plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (a separate appendix describes the prayers and songs there to be sung). - Binding somewhat brownstained and a little warped; upper hinge starting. Paper evenly browned throughout, occasional brownstains. Provenance: from the library of Duke Franciszek Maksymilian Ossolinski (1676-1756), Polish politician in the service of the exiled Stanislaus I. Leszczynski and an important collector, with his autograph ownership inscription "Ex Libris F. M. Ducis de Tencryn-Ossolinski", dated Lunéville, 12 Sept. 1741, to front pastedown, and a three-line handwritten French quotation from St. Augustine to lower pastedown. In all a good copy of a widely received work; this edition rarely seen at auction. Weber II, 204. Röhricht p. 208, no. 787. Estreicher XXVI, 90. Brunet IV, 1087. Graesse VI, 17. Baumgarten, Hall. Bibl. VI, 65f. Ebert II, 18596. Tobler 83. Cf. Aboussouan 769.
4to (19.5 x 15.5 cm). (4), "139" [= 135], (5) pp. With a woodcut ship on the title-page (with a griffin on the sail) and about 60 woodcut illustrations in the text (mostly about 55 x 80 mm) plus about 10 repeats, each with a thick-thin border. Set in textura types with incidental roman and italic. Gold-tooled, red goatskin morocco by Robert Riviere in London (ca. 1875/80), with 5 (false?) bands on the spine, each board with a double frame of double and triple fillets and 2 different sets of 4 corner pieces, author and title in gold in 2nd and 3rd of 6 spine compartments, the others with gold-tooled decorations and the date and place of publication at the foot, gold-tooled turn-ins, gold fillets on board edges, straight-combed endpapers, gilt edges, stamped on the back of the free marbled endleaf in sans-serif capitals: "Bound by Riviere". A rare 17th-century English edition, with about 60 different woodcut illustrations, of a classic and partly fictional 14th-century account of travels presented as voyages of Sir John Mandeville through Turkey, Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Persia, Arabia, India and the East Indies. According to the story he set off on his travels in 1322 from Saint Albans in England, returned in 1343, wrote the present account in 1364 and died in 1371. It was originally written in French and is thought to have been compiled from various sources by Jehan d'Outremeuse (1338-1400) of Liege. A 1371 manuscript survives and it first appeared in print under the title Itinerarius in Dutch (ca. 1477), French (1480), German (1480) and other languages, and in English in Richard Pynson's edition of ca. 1497/98. It includes many well-known stories and illustrations of monstrous people and animals in exotic lands: a man with only one enormous foot that he can use as a parasol, a dog-headed man, a man with his face in his chest, a girl who turns into a dragon, griffins, nine-metre giants, ants that gather gold, diamonds that mate and give birth to baby diamonds and much more that spoke to the imagination (though the ox-headed man is presented as an idol that was worshipped, rather than a fantastic beast). The book also includes genuine descriptions of the regions covered and gave many Europeans their first notions of the Near East, Middle East, India and East Indies. It shows carrier pigeons, an elephant and other recognizable or plausible scenes. It also incorporates and illustrates some biblical stories. The part on Arabia includes an account of the birth of Mohammed. Most of the present woodcuts are loosely and indirectly based on those in the 1481 Augsburg edition, partly in mirror image. The book went through dozens of editions in English and other languages. It reached more or less the present form with the 1650 London edition, which may have used the same woodblocks (we have not had an opportunity to compare them). The imprint of the present edition names four London publishers, and one of them (Conyers) also advertises his edition of William Lithgow's Nineteen years travels (1692) at the foot of the last page. The book was registered for these four publishers in the term catalogue for Trinity 1696, issued in June. The printing was probably shared between two different anonymous printers: exactly half way through the book, between quires I and K, the running heads, the textura type used for the main text and the roman drop capitals opening the chapters change. The 1684 edition by four London publishers (none named in the present edition) not only uses the same woodblocks but is also typographically almost identical to the first half of the present edition and no doubt came from the same printer. The drop capitals differ, but those in the present edition have not been recorded before 1688. Samuel Roycroft and James Orme both used them, and Roycroft used at least several of the other types in the first half. The book is printed on coarse laid paper with no watermark. Halliwell, in his 1869 edition of Mandeville, noted the present edition for its woodcuts and reproduced at least many of them from the Grenville copy now at the British Library. Only 5 other copies are known, all in U.S. libraries. Robert Riviere (1808-82) established his famous bindery in Bath and moved it to London in 1840, gaining a reputation as one of England's best binders for the quality of his materials and workmanship. He signed his bindings "Bound by Riviere" from 1860 to 1880 (thereafter Riviere & son). - With an early owner's inscription faded on the title-page and 2 armorial bookplates on the paste-down: Sir Edward Sullivan (1822-85), Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Allan Heywood Bright (1862-1941) in Liverpool, a member of Parliament, along with a loosely inserted signed autograph letter (ca. 1900) from Bright's brother Hugh Bright (1867-1935) in Leeds, giving him the book and noting that he bought it at Young's "some years ago". With 8 leaves with their margins extended at the fore-edge and foot ( N2-O4, Q1, probably sophisticated from another copy of the same edition), sometimes shaving a catchword or quire signature, the title-page and last page somewhat worn and dirty, but further in good condition, with a few minor marginal chips and tears restored or repaired and 3 leaves with minor water stains in one corner. The spine is slightly faded but the binding is still very good. A rare edition of Mandeville's voyages, illustrated with about 60 woodblocks cut ca. 1650. Arber, Term catalogues II, p. 593, item 8; ESTC R217088 (5 copies); J. O. Halliwell (ed.), Voiage and travaile of Sir John Maundevile (1866), p. xvi (item 2, from the Grenville library); Wing M417 (same 5 copies); for the story in general: Cambridge History of English Literature (1976), pp. 78-87.
Folio. (16), 311, (60) ff. Title-page and sub-title to index with ornamental woodcut border. Woodcut initials, head and tail pieces. Calf, gold-tooled ribbed spine with title-label. Sprinkled edges. First edition of the "Natural history" edited by Johannes Caesarius (1468-1550), a humanist and close friend of Erasmus. The original text was by Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23 - August 25, AD 79), better known as Pliny the Elder. He was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. The text in the present edition is decorated with woodcut borders and many woodcut initials. - The "Naturalis Historia" is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. He claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It comprised 37 books in 10 volumes and covered over 20,000 facts on topics including the fields of botany, zoology, astronomy , geology and mineralogy as well as the exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. Some technical advances he discusses are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding corn. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology. ''We know from Pliny that there were important pearl fisheries in the Gulf [...] Pliny identifies Tylos (Bahrain) as a place famous for its pearls [... He] attests that pearls were the most highly rated valuable in Roman society, and that those from the Gulf were specially praised [...] The pearl related finds at the site of El-Dur indicate the site was integrated into the maritime trade routes linking the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, India and South Arabia'' (Carter). Book 6 holds a chapter that gives the first detailed account of the regions around the Gulf, including what are now Qatar, the Emirates and Oman. - Not only is it virtually the only work which describes the work of artists of the time, and has it become an important reference work for the history of art, due to the wide range of topics, the referencing system and index it became a model for later encyclopaedias. - With manuscript notes of multiple owners on pastedown (including written ex-libris by Antonii Mauritii Seguin 1713 and Mathon de la cour 1744). Some underling in text, and notes in the margins (partly lost due to trimmed edges). A very good copy with bookplate of De Ponsainpierre on pastedown. VD 16, P 3531. Adams P 1556. BM-STC German 704. Durling 3689 (imperfect copy). Hunt 23. USTC (11 copies).
Three parts in one volume. 4to. 220 x 155 mm. Woodcut device on general and parts titles. Early blindstamped calf, rebacked and refurbished retaining most of original spine. First edition, second issue. Guillaume Postel travelled to Constantinople in 1535 as official interpreter to the embassy of Jean de La Fort to the Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent. He returned there in 1549, and was also the author of the first Arabic grammar in French. "His work is not so much a descriptive account of his travels as a compendium of information gleaned while traveling and from other sources. The third book, 'La Tierce Partie des Orientales Histoires', furnished an usually complete and accurate picture fo the governing system of the Ottoman Empire" (Blackmer). - Without final blank ff6, 2 single wormholes in lower margin of opening few leaves, small repair at inner lower corner of opening 2 leaves, early ownership inscription on first title. Cf. Adams P2015. Atabey 977. Blackmer 1335.
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).
(2) Burton, Richard F. Supplemental Nights. (3) Burton, Richard F. [Autograph manuscript book review of an 1881 Panchatantra edition]. 16 volumes (including 6 supplements). 8vo. With an original manuscript leaf written by Burton (with the manuscript heading: "Proof to Sir R.F.B. Hotel des Bains, Aigle, Canton Vaud, Switzerland" and a note "Long Primer Pressig.") and each volume with a different frontispiece in two states (coloured and uncoloured). Contemporary richly gold-blocked green morocco, boards with Arabic script in gold, spine with raised bands, gold-tooled turn-ins, marbled paste-downs. The so-called "manuscript edition" of Richard Burton's celebrated translation of Alf Laylah Wa Laylah, commonly known in English as the Arabian nights. These Arabic tales, cherished in Europe since the early 18th century, are often erotic in content, and in Burton's unexpurgated translation they outraged Victorian England. Burton included numerous footnotes and a scholarly apparatus, offering a vivid picture of Arabian life, which set his translation apart from earlier English renderings. - The present edition (limited to 99 sets, the present being copy no. 49) includes a manuscript leaf from a text by Burton. In the present copy this is a book review by Burton, of a French translation of Johannis de Capua's Latin translation of a Hebrew translation of the Panchatantra, a Sanskrit frame story written several centuries before the Arabian nights. The notes at the head show that it was used as printer's copy. - The title-page of volume one uses the correct main title, The book of the thousand nights and a night, but confusingly mixes it with part of the subtitle of the Supplemental nights: "to the book of the thousand one nights with notes anthropological and explanatory". To add further confusion it says "volume three", though the content is that of volume one. The volume number is clearly a printer's error, apparently corrected early in the press run. - Ross dates the (regular copies of the) present edition ca. 1940. This later date is supported by the fact that this edition is not included in Penzer's thorough bibliography published in 1923. - Some minor browning to the endpapers, those of the first volume partly detached and with a small pieces torn off, the binding has some very minor wear to the hinges, and a few headbands have been carefully repaired. A fine set. Scheherazade's Web: The 1001 Nights & Comparative Literature, J. Ross 10 & 11. Cf. Penzer, pp. 126-132 (other Burton club editions).
Folio (213 x 442 mm). Black Naskhi on paper, decorated with an illuminated sarlowh in red and blue. Mounted on cloth. Rare 18th century copy of the "Ashtiname" (Covenant), a charter granting protection and other privileges to the followers of Jesus, issued to the Christian monks of St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, supposedly by the Prophet Muhammad and dated Muharram of the year 2 of the Hegira. - A handwritten copy of a famous document from the early history of Islam: it assures the Christian populations of the protection of their property as well as their places of worship, among other privileges. While the authenticity of the text has been called into question by many scholars, the history of its reception over the centuries remains a fascinating subject. The supposed original document, which was given by the Prophet Muhammad to the monks of St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, was confiscated by Sultan Selim I (ruled 1512-20) during his campaign in Egypt and Syria in 1516/17. Subsequently, numerous copies were drawn up so as to renew the protection offered to Christians. Their authenticity is assured by the certification of a qadi, our document bearing the signature of the qadi of Egypt, a certain Isma'il, affixed by way of a seal in the right margin of the document. - Minor repairs and dampstaining, but well preserved.
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.
Folio (216 x 342 mm). 12 parts in one volume. (4), 23; (2), II, 30; (4), 19, (1); (4), 23, (1); (4), 19, (1); (4), 12; (4), 12; (4), 20; (4), 22; (4), 15, (1); (4), 23, (1); (4), 10 pp. Printed in single columns with blank space left at inner margins for notes. Half sheep over red cloth boards, rebacked, gilt-lettered spine. A full year's worth of confidential memoranda issued by Edward Henry Scamander Clarke (1856-1947), Deputy Secretary to the Government of India, providing a detailed picture of British relations in Arabia and Asia throughout 1911. The memoranda encompass Arabia (including Aden, Baghdad, Kuwait, Muscat, Bahrain, the Gulf, and the Trucial Coast), Tibet, Bhutan, Assam, and Burma. The numerous and frequently extensive paragraphs dedicated to the "Arabian littoral of the Persian Gulf" not only discuss problems of charting and navigating the coastal waters, but also focus on defending British commercial interests in the region at a moment when the international trade was scrambling to access the Arabian pearl banks, while at the same time British authority was taking a dramatic plunge in the aftermath of the notorious "Dubai Incident" of 24 December 1910, a botched gun raid operation that led to rising tensions between Britain and the people of the Trucial Coast. Items include notes on the desire of the "Wahabi Amir of Nejd", Abdulaziz ibn Saud, to "come into closer relations with His Majesty's Government"; proposed hydrographical surveys of possible approaches to Kuwait and Bahrain; a proposed enquiry into the causes of the depletion of the pearl banks in the Gulf, and the possible attitude of the local Arab tribes as well as foreign agents in the area; an investigation into possible business residences of Rosenthal Frères in Dubai and Bahrain, and the question of British firms entering into the local pearling business; a proposal to secure written assurances from the Sheikhs of the Gulf not to extend pearl fishing concessions to foreigners; policy differences between Britain and the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Butti bin Suhail Al Maktoum; piracy committed on a Dubai boat; the proposed establishment of British banks at certain port town along the Gulf coast; a discussion of the need for a treaty with the Qatar Sheikhs; the "question of the sovereignty over Katar"; the cancellation by the Sheikh of Sharjah of an excavation concession granted on Abu Musa island; the replacement of lost light buoys off the Arabian Gulf coast; negotiations with Turkey over territorial differences; Kuwait and the Baghdad Railway; and the Ottoman occupation of Jazirat az Zakhnuniyah (off the Saudi Arabian coast, between Bahrain and Qatar). - Further sections discuss treaties and trade agreements; expeditions and scientific missions; irrigation, shipping and railways, telegraph and postal networks, trade; arms trafficking; disturbances and risings; and British relations with Turkey and China. Also covered are the murder of Noel Williamson, assistant political officer, Sadiya, and his party in the Panga Hills, Assam, and the subsequent Abor Expedition; the Chinese Revolution of 1911 (Xinhai Revolution) and its impact in Tibet and Burma; and the Italo-Turkish War. - A few marks to text. Binding rubbed and marked at extremeties, spine recently rebacked. Extremely rare: no copy traceable in library catalogues internationally.
Small folio (ca. 190 x 270 mm). Ottoman manuscript in Arabic on paper. (282) ff. Contemporary 15th-century Ottoman overlapping wallet-type binding, blind-stamped front-board with a blind-tooled frame and a blind-tooled centrepiece. Highly interesting 15th century Hanafite manuscript compendium on Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), dated 14 Rabi' al-awwal 825 AH, corresponding to 14 March 1422 CE. Although the manuscript contains popular and widespread Hanafite commentaries, a manuscript of this age is a rare survival. It includes the "explanation of hermetic subjects" (Hall al-mawadi' al-mughlaqa) by 'Ubayd Allah ibn Mas'ud Sadr al-Shari'a al-Thani al-Mahbubi (also known as Sadr al-Shari'a al-Asghar; d. 1347 CE) and a commentary by him on "Wiqayat al-riwaya fi masa'il al-Hidaya" by his grandfather Mahmud ibn Sadr al-Shari'a al-Awwal al-Mahbubi (13th century). Also included is a summary of the legal manual "Al-Hidaya" by 'Ali ibn Abi Bakr al-Marghinani (d. 1197), which is considered one of the most influential compendia of the Hanafi jurisprudence (fiqh). "Al-Hidayah" is actually a concise commentary on another work of him titled Bidayat al-Mubtadi'. The work contains many contemporary marginal and interlinear glosses in Arabic, making this 15th-century jurisprudential handbook with influential texts by some of the most important scholars from the Hanafite school of fiqh even more important. - The manuscript contains many marginal and interlinear glosses in Arabic. Binding a little worn around the edges and with a few scratches on the boards, rebacked spine and some other restorations to the binding in the Ottoman style, some inactive moulding and waterstaining in the last approximately third part of the book (without loss of text), paper edges slightly frayed, but an interesting 15th-century manuscript on Islamic law in acceptable condition and still in its contemporary binding.
4to. (16), 194, (6) pp. With a double-page engraved table of Arabic characters. Contemporary full blindstamped calf. First edition of the first book printed with Roman letters in Turkey. Holdermann's "Grammaire turque" is the first French-Turkish grammar, printed on behalf of the French embassy to the Porte, at the first printing press established in 1726 by Zaid Aga Effendi, son of the Turkish ambassador to France, and Ibrahim Müteferrika. The type apparently was sent out from France especially for this work. Words and phrases are given both in Arabic-script Osmanli and in Roman transliteration. The engraved alphabetic table displays the names and shapes of letter forms for French and Turkish alphabets, including the letter forms used in various styles of Turkish writing for different uses: Nesghi for the Qur'an, Divani for business, Tealik for law and poetry, Kyrma for public registers; Sulus, like capitals, is used for book titles and imperial patents, Jakuti, and Rejani. - Since 1719 the French embassy had been calling for improved instruction and grammatical texts, and the present work was compiled by Holdermann "aprés avoir consulté, & conferé avec les plus habils maîtres, sur tout avec le sçavant Ibrahim [Müteferrika] Effendi, sur cet langue" (preface) for the use of the school of the "Enfants des Langues" (the school of the dragomans, or official interpreters) at Constantinople. Holdermann's book was also adopted as a teaching text by the Jesuit College at Paris, which had received a number of copies from the librarian at the Bibliothèque du Roi, abbé Bignon, in 1731 and 1732. - Holdermann, a Jesuit from Strasbourg, spent some four years as a missionary in Constantinople, dying there in 1730. He had projected also a French-Armenian grammar, which was unfinished at the time of his death. - Binding a little rubbed; corners bumped. Insignificant traces of worming to lower gutter near the beginning; dampstain to margin of first quire and diffuse dampstains to pp. 131-138. The first leaf of the index is bound after the title-page, the remaining two at the end. Complete with the final errata leaf. - Provenance: contemporary ownership of a Vlach nobleman in French service on the lower flyleaf ("Mr Pierre Rhetorides Grand Vornike de Valachie et Michmandare de Sa Hautesse le Grand Marechale de Frence"). The principality of Wallachia was then vassal state of the Ottoman Empire supported by France between 1730 and 1769. Blackmer 824. Atabey 586. Zenker 304. De Backer/Sommervogel IV, 431, 1. Toderini III, p. 89, no. VIII. Watson, "Ibrahim Müteferrika and Turkish incunabula", Journal of the American Oriental Society 88.3 (1968), 435-441 at p. 437, no. 8. Brunet II, 1693 ("volume peu commun et assez recherché").
Large 4to (208 x 260 mm). A series of 10 folding engraved plates of horses, all approx. 24 x 25 cm. Includes a board of iron and silver-plated hardware mounted on the front pastedown (34 pieces in all). Early 19th century half calf with marbled covers. The set includes 11 buckles (a twelfth appears to have been lost), 4 square rings, 9 bosses, and 6 ornamental appliqués, all of which are mounted on the inside upper cover with string or metal tongues and have identifying number codes in (faded) pencil. The plates show horses in five different tack kits, each presented for a single horse and for a team of two. A customer choosing from this sample book would first have picked a design from the plates, then selected the buckles and other hardware he wished to see used from the specimens inside the front cover. - Covers rubbed; extremeties bumped. A few ruststained holes and pressure marks to the front flyleaf and first plate; occasional slight staining to plates; lower corner of flyleaf is missing. A unique sample book used by an unidentified early 19th century tack maker.
(2) [Harsdörffer, Georg Philipp]. Germania deplorata, sive relatio, qua pragmatica momenta belli pacisque expenduntur. (3) [Milag, Martin]. Aulaea Romana, contra Peristromata Turcica expansa: sive dissertatio emblematica, concordiae Christianae omen repraesentans. (4) [Anonymous French critic of Cardinal Richelieu]. Gallia deplorata, sive relatio, de luctuoso bello, quod rex Christianissimus contra vicinos populos molitur. 4 editions published together in 1 volume. 4to. With 2 engraved title-plates plus 12 full-page engraved emblematic illustrations, all on integral leaves, each with a small plate nested in a larger plate (7 in the Peristromata with a varying plate black and the same outer plate of a Persian carpet in orange). Gold-tooled light brown calf (ca. 1820?) by Charles Murton in London. Rare first and only Latin editions (probably the first and only early editions in any language) of four closely related polemical pamphlets on European policy toward the Ottoman Empire. The publication was instigated by the prominent Nuremberg poet and jurist Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1607-58), who somehow found access to the French manuscripts of the pro-Richelieu "Peristromata Turcica" (Turkish carpets), and the anti-Richelieu "Gallia deplorata", translated them into Latin, edited them for publication and added what is believed to be his own anti-French Latin rebuttal of the former, "Germania deplorata". On 26 November 1641 he sent all three to the Calvinist Prince Ludwig of Anhalt-Köthen, founding president of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in Weimar, who found the "Peristromata Turcica" shocking and dangerous, not only for its content but also because its remarkable and "seductive" graphic form. At a spring 1642 meeting of the society Ludwig initiated the writing and production of an emblematic rebuttal, the "Aulaea Romana" (Roman tapestries). Besides the political importance of these pamphlets as records of differing European attitudes toward the Ottoman Empire, they are remarkable graphic and typographic artefacts, early examples of colour printing and important emblemata. In 1536 Francois I had formed an alliance with the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent, and for a century Franco-Ottoman relations swung between extremes. Around 1626 Cardinal Richelieu began to encourage noblemen to strengthen France's economy by expanding its maritime trade in the Middle East, Near East and beyond. But with its great maritime power, the Ottoman Empire was not only a potentially valuable trading partner but also a fierce competitor and even a military threat to Europe's trade in those regions. Richelieu therefore attempted to form a Catholic union with the Holy Roman Empire and others to fight against the Ottomans. With owner's inscription of the lawyer and diplomat Georg Achatz Heher (1601-67) and bookplate of Robert Hoe (1839-1909), one of the greatest book collectors of all time. With the last quires (E-H) of the "Aulaea Romana" misbound following the last quire (G) of Gallia. A small marginal worm hole in the first work and the first leaves of the second, and an occasional small marginal chip or tear, but still in good condition. The binding with cracks in the hinges and some wear at the extremities, but otherwise good. Although these four editions were clearly designed to be published together, only about a dozen complete sets are known to survive, nearly all in Germany, Austria and Poland. Faber de Faur 497-500. Praz 448f. M. Reinhart, "Georg Philipp Harsdörffer and the Emblematic Pamphlets of 1641-42", in: Emblemata XX (2013), pp. 313-376 & XXI (2014), pp. 277-375. Stijnman & Savage, p. 46 (ad 1). Not in Atabey or Blackmer.
Small folio (220 x 273 mm). 4 vols. (2), LXXXIX, (1), XII, 561, (3) pp. VIII, 727, (3) pp. VIII, 609, (3) pp. VIII, 574, (54) pp. Errata leaf in rear of each volume. Expertly bound to style in half calf over period marbled paper covered boards, flat spine divided into six compartments with gilt roll tools, black morocco lettering piece in the second, the others with a repeat arabesque decoration in gilt. First English edition of "al-Hidayah", the authoritative guide to Islamic jurisprudence, printed in a small number of copies only (cf. Brunet). The understanding of Islamic law was critical to the colonial administration of India, and in particular of Bengal with its large Muslim population, and this work was intended to enable English officials to understand local proceedings. - Commonly referred to as al-Hidayah or The Guidance, this work originated as a 12th-century Hanafi work by Sheikh al-Islam Burhan al-Din al-Farghani al-Marghinani (1135-97) and is considered an authoritative guide to Islamic law among Muslims throughout the world. The Hidayah presents a legal tradition developed over many centuries and represents the corpus of Hanafi law in its approved and preferred form. The primary reason for its popularity is the reliability of its statements and the soundness of its legal reasoning. It is arguably the most popular and important work in fiqh literature. - Hamilton's English translation is based on a Persian translation by Ghulam Ya Khan from the original Arabic. Intended for a British audience, chapters relating to rituals were omitted, while his coverage of contracts, torts, and criminal law is more complete. Hamilton explains in his preface: "The permanence of any foreign dominion (and indeed, the justification of holding such a dominion) requires that a strict attention be paid to ease and advantage, not only of the governors, but of the governed; and to this great end nothing can so effectually contribute as preserving to the latter their ancient established practices, civil and religious and protecting them in the exercise in their own institutes [...] they must be infinitely more acceptable than anything we could offer; since they are supported by the accumulated prejudice of ages, and, in the opinion of their followers, derive their origin from the Divinity himself" (Preliminary Discourse). A second edition of Hamilton's translation was published in 1870, though the first edition is rare. - Light browning throughout with occasional brownstains, but generally a very finely preserved copy in an appealing modern binding. Brunet III, 75. OCLC 10111750.
Large 8vo (245 x 178 mm). 29 volumes bound in 5. Includes 33 folding maps and 5 folding diagrams, a number of which colour-printed. Modern half calf with marbled boards and giltstamped titles to spines. A near-complete run of mandate reports on Palestine and Trans-Jordan from 1921 onwards, mostly published under Britain's mandate from the League of Nations, comprising both the relevant Colonial series and the Command Papers series as presented to parliament. - As early as 1920, when the joint British, French and Arab military administration over the formerly Ottoman Levantine provinces was transformed into a civil authority, Britain's High Commissioner of Palestine was required to file regular reports to the Colonial Office on the operations of this new administration. From 1922 onwards, when Britain was granted the Mandate for Palestine and Trans-Jordan, these reports were adapted for the Council of the League of Nations. They cover the finances and taxation, customs and trade, law and legislation, education, public health, public transport and immigration in Mandatory Palestine, also detailing the various security problems and sectarian strife in the territory and covering the establishment of the Palestine Gendarmerie, its transformation into the Palestine Police Force, the introduction of military units and sources and causes of violence. The reports were discontinued with the advent of the Second World War. - The present set includes: An interim report on the civil administration of Palestine during the period 1st July 1920 - 30th June 1921 [Cmd. 1499]. Palestine. Disturbances in May, 1921. Reports of the Commission of Inquiry ... [Cmd. 1540]. Miscellaneuous No. 4 (1922) [Cmd. 1708]. Correspondence with the Palestine Arab Delegation and the Zionist Organisation [Cmd. 1700]. Mandate for Palestine ... [Cmd. 1785]. Papers relating to the elections [Cmd. 1889]. Proposed formation of an Arab Agency [Cmd. 1989]. Appendices to the Report ... for the year 1924 [Colonial No. 17]. Report ... on the Administration Under Mandate of Palestine and Transjordan for the year 1924 [Colonial No. 12]. Report ... to the Council of the League of Nations ... for the year 1925 [Colonial No. 20]. Report ... to the Council of the League of Nations ... for the year 1926 [Colonial No. 26]. 1927 [Colonial No. 31]. 1928 [Colonial No. 40]. 1929 [Colonial No. 47]. 1930 [Colonial No. 59]. Palestine. Statement of Policy by his Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom [Cmd. 3692]. Palestine. Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development [Cmd. 3687]. 1931 [Colonial No. 75]. 1932 [Colonial No. 82]. 1933 [Colonial No. 94]. 1934 [Colonial No. 104]. 1935 [Colonial No. 112]. 1936 [Colonial No. 129]. Statistical Abstract of Palestine 1936, Palestine Royal Commission 1937 [Cmd. 5479]. 1937 [Colonial No. 146]. Palestine Partition Commission Report 1938 [Cmd. 5854]. 1938 [Colonial No. 166]. Miscellaneous No. 3 (1939). Correspondence between Sir Henry McMahon […] and the Sherif Hussein of Mecca July 1915-March 1916. [Cmd. 5957]. Palestine Statement of Policy [Cmd. 6019]. - Extensive sets as ours are extremely rare in the trade; the last set sold at auction did not contain a single volume of the Command Papers series (Christie's 2016, sale 12051, lot 366), as present here. Cf. Khalidi/Khadduri, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. An annotated bibliography, nos. 1569, 1633, 1641-3 & 1647.
Folio. (12), 125, (1) ff. With woodcut printer's device on title-page, repeated on final page, two pages with decorative woodcut borders (built up from 4 blocks, some with initials I.F.), and woodcut initials throughout. 18th-century half calf, with marbled paper in a tree pattern on sides, gold-tooled spine with the coat of arms of the Russian Tsars. First edition of a collection of four medical works, compiled by the Swiss physician Albanus Torinus (1489-1550). The main part of the work consists of "De re medica", also known as "Medicina Pliniana", a very popular medical text during the Middle Ages. Compiled in the fourth century by an anonymous author, it is generally ascribed to Plinius Valerianus, also called pseudo-Plinius, since it mainly derived from Pliny the Elder's "Historia naturalis". Consisting of five books, it gives various medicines and treatments for different diseases, ailments, wounds, tumours etc. The book also draws heavily from the works of Galen and Dioscorides, all highly esteemed in the Arabic world. - The work also contains three other medical works from different authors. "The contents are all either spurious works or later compilations from genuine works of the authors to whom they are attributed" (Durling). It starts with an introduction to "the art of healing", ascribed to Soranus of Ephesus. The second text is by Oribasius, a Greek medical writer from the fourth century BC. According to Durling, the text is an extract from the first chapter of his "Euporista ad Eunapium". The work closes with a botanical text, "De virtutibus herbarum", ascribed to Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis, but written by an anonymous author from the 4th century, known as Pseudo-Apuleius. In one of the manuscripts Torinus used, the text was ascribed to the famous Italian physician Antonio Musa Brassavola (1500-55), an expert on the works of Galen and heavily influenced by his work. - The editor, Torinus, was appointed professor of practical medicine at the University of Basel after receiving the degree of doctor in medicine in Montpellier. He translated many Greek texts into Latin, or Latin works into the vernacular, including Vesalius' "De humani corporis fabrica". - From the library of the Russian tsars, with its letterpress library label with shelf number on pastedown and the coat of arms on the spine. With the place and date of printing added in manuscript on the title-page. Paper on boards slightly chafed, binding with traces of use along the extremities, corners bumped and spine restored. First five leaves with a minor water stain, but otherwise a very good copy. Adams S 1461. Durling 4351. Parkinson 2410.
Folio (332 x 218 mm). With engraved frontispiece, portrait of the author, and 140 engravings, all but one full-page. Contemporary full vellum with manuscript lettering to spine. First edition of this rare Italian riding school, covering all aspects of horse breeding, training and care, lavishly illustrated with 140 engravings. A second, enlarged edition, also apparently rare, was published in 1723 under the title "Opera". The work is divided into five parts: the first, "Regole di cavalcare" with one plate; the second, "[...] ove si tratta del difficilissimo mestiere dell' imbrigliare"; the third, "[...] dell' istesso", with 95 illustrations of bits, etc.; the fourth, "Disegni de' circoli" with 10 diagrams and "Ritratti d'uomini illustri" with 27 portraits, about half of which show mounted figures; the fifth, "[...] intorno alla preservativa, conservatione, e medicina per cavalli" with 7 plates, also including other animals (such as a rhinoceros). - Errata leaf at beginning, some leaves browned or spotted. No copy in auction records of the last decades. Huth p. 28. Brunet I, 159. Graesse I, 68.
Folio. 3 parts in one volume. (4), 144 (last blank) ff. with 32 woodcut illustrations; 94, (2), 45 (3) (last blank) ff. First title-page printed in red and black; 3 (repeated) printer's devices. Contemporary blindstamped leather over wooden boards with one metal clasp (out of 2). A collection of three works published by Feyerabend, issued jointly with separate title-pages each. The first work contains a translation of the famous travel account of Francisco Alvarez (ca. 1470-1540), who accompanied as a chaplain the 1520-26 Portuguese expedition to Ethiopia under Rodrigo de Lima. The embassy was occasioned by a letter by Helen, Empress of Ethiopia, the grandmother of Lebna Dengel (David II). The journey began in Massaua in 1520, leading the party to Shewa and Dabra Libanos before they reached Lebna Dengel's camp near Taguelat. Alvarez made at least four journeys to Shewa before leaving Ethiopia in 1526, bound for India. According to Ramusio, this was the earliest account of Etiopia, and for at least a century it would remain the principal published source on the country. The first edition appeared in Portuguese in 1540, comprising merely a part of Alvarez's lost five books. Alvarez describes the country's churches, including the rock-hewn churches, and also the towns and the agriculture. Historical geography owes to him the story of the invasion of the Somal and Galla. Alvarez also gives accounts of the countries surrounding the rule of Prester John, such as Danakil and Godjam. It is unfortunate that Alvarez was unable to perform cartographical and topographical localisations, and yet his influence on cartography remained evident until the days of d'Anville and J. Bruce (cf. Henze I, 62ff.). The account is prefixed by two letters by Andrea Corsal, previously published in 1516. The Florentine traveller Corsal describes, on 24 ff., mainly the area of the Red Sea, Southern Arabia (with descriptions of Aden, Hormuz, Bahrein, Socotra, Muscat, and Oman), India, Ethiopia, Persia (the city of Balsera and King Sophi), as well as Malacca. - Binding somewhat rubbed; wants one clasp. Title-page clipped and remargined; old ownerships to title and flyleaf; a small worm-hole to 35 ff. (touching a single line); evenly browned throughout. A very good copy. Kainbacher 15f; Lockot 711, 732; Gay 186; Sabin 974. Cox I, 3 & 22. Gay 3321 (French ed.). The second work is a translation of Orosius's world history; the third work is a translation of the text from Ortelius's 1580 world atlas. - Schweiger 622 (Orosius). Not in Adams.
Folio (212 x 335 mm). (2), 276, IX, (1) pp., final blank, with one folding plate (counted as p. 152). Contemporary half cloth with original printed boards, issued thus. Gertrude Bell's personal copy of this excessively rare manual on the social, political and economic structures of the Arab tribes living in the Baghdad Vilayet (Province) as drawn up in July 1918, only months before the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire ended the old administrative divisions and led to the formation of several new states - indeed, to the creation of the modern Arab world. - Arranged alphabetically by the names of the tribes, this handbook - essentially a carefully compiled and redacted British intelligence file printed for the use of British Political Officers and their assistants in a region then undergoing dramatic upheavals - offers surprisingly detailed information on the tribes' origins, loyalties and internal quarrels, the locations of their settlements, strength of their possessions, economic and bargaining power, as well as their kinships, often including genealogical tables. The names of the tribes' leaders are given in full, frequently also in the original Arabic. - Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), who had firsthand experience among the tribes, signed her name in pencil ("Gertrude Lowthian Bell") on the front free endpaper. Several neatly pencilled additions to some of the entries are likewise in her hand: next to the name Fahad ibn Hadhdal she notes that he died and the name of a "rival" (this underlined), apparently a "bin Dughaiyin" (p. 16). In another entry she notes that Jazza' ibn Mijlad "blockaded Turks in North for allies in 1st war" (p. 17) and that the A'marat prefer to winter near al-Hafan. There are several references to her fellow political officer, St John Philby, and a correction that the Al-Dulaim are "all Sunnis" (p. 265), and none Shi'ahs. - Gertrude Bell was a traveller, political actor, and archaeologist who was a key player in the nation-building after World War I, especially in Iraq. She founded the Iraq Museum, translated Persian poetry, and advised the British government's foreign policy at nearly the highest level. It is little surprise that she would have owned one of the few copies of this important source, containing otherwise nearly unobtainable population statistics as well as details on the political history of a region in which traditional tribal feuds became mingled with international high politics. Considering the limited scope of intended distribution and the sensitive nature of the information contained, it is safe to say that this invaluable compendium never had more than a very limited press-run; indeed; only three copies are known today in libraries worldwide, and none with such unique provenance. - Covers rubbed, title-page brittle and reinforced with two library stamps carefully removed but still faintly visible. A closed tear to the folding map. Later in the collection of the American missionary turned political biographer Harry J. Almond (1918-2007), with his handwritten ownership in ink next to Bell's own. In all very well preserved. No copy in auction records. OCLC: 921927074, 729268761.
Folio (548 x 400 mm). Vol. I (all published). Lithographic portrait of Arif Pasha, on India paper mounted, drawn on stone by M. Julien, 16 tinted lithographic plates after Arif (lacking lithographic title, toning to text). Contemporary black half morocco over black cloth-covered boards with gilt title to spine. First edition of the valuable and beautifully illustrated survey of the costume worn at the court of the Ottoman Empire, published with the text in both French and Turkish. Ministers, state officials and military officers (including intelligence service) are shown in full costume with their functions captioned in Arabic and French below. Although the lithographic title states 'Tome 1er', no further volume was published in either language. - Arif Pasha fought against the Greeks at Athens and at Euboea (1826-28), and in Syria against Mehmet Ali. His career included a number of missions for the Sultan and his appointment in 1861 as governor of the province of Silistria. Atabey 30. Blackmer 43. Lipperheide 1440m. Colas I, 148.