Volney

1788 · Best.-Nr. 121627 — London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson 1788. Second Edition. Hardcover. Very good. 2 vols.: xii 418; iv 500 15 p. 22 cm. 5 engraved fold-out plates including 2 maps. 1. Full tree-calf leather. Corners lightly bumped. Vol. 2. Small dent on bottom of rear board in vol. 1 as well as a bit of soiling to lower edge of text block. Vol. 2 has large horizontal tear in p. 327 chip in third plate and dampstains to front pastedown and inner margins of first pages. Paper bright and clean. Title continues: "Containing The present Natural and Political State of those Countries their Productions Arts Manufactures and Commerce; with Observations on the Manners Customs and Government of the Turks and Arabs." Volney 1757-1820 was a well-travelled learned man. He embarked on a journey to the Near East in late 1782 and spent nearly seven months in Ottoman Egypt. Afterwards he lived for nearly two years in Greater Syria in what is today Lebanon and Israel in order to learn Arabic. He returned to France in 1785 where he spent the following two years compiling his notes and writing these volumes. He continued to travel in later years being expelled from the U.S.A. as a suspected spy in 1797. It seems his life was always an adventure for he narrowly escaped the guillotine during the French Revolution. Of interest in these well-preserved volumes is the account given of the Arabic press at the convent of Marhanna vol. 2 pp. 190-191 with a catalogue of books printed there p. 196. On the macabre side is the extensive discussion of diseases prevalent in Egypt including smallpox blindness cutaneous eruptions plague and Neapolitan Disease which seems to be syphilis vol. 1 pp. 240-258. Indexed. G.G.J. and J. Robinson hardcover