(Dominicus Germanus de Silesia, OFM).MareMagnum
2 951 résultats
4to (227 x 163 mm). 1 bl. f., 66 pp. (counted as 43; numerous errors in pagination; some parts included in two variants). With woodcut title vignette. Contemporary limp vellum with ms. title to spine. Very rare polemical work, printed throughout in Arabic and Latin, that aims to compare and contrast Christian and Muslim scripture and doctrines. Dedicated to Cardinal Barberini. The editor Dominicus (1585-1670) taught Arabic at the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide since 1636 and collaborated on their Bible project. His magnum opus, one of the first literal Quran translations, was not rediscovered and published until 1883. In 1636 he published an Arabic grammar (the first publication of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide press to use Arabic type); in 1639 he would produce a dictionary of vernacular Arabic. Four years in the Middle East had convinced him that a missionary must before everything else know the vernacular language (cf. Fück, p. 78). The present work was considered lost quite recently by Antonio García Masegosa in his study "Germán de Silesia, Interpretatio Alcorani Litteralis, Parte I: La traducción latina" (Madrid, 2009): "Por la misma época, publicó un tratado religioso en árabe y en latín titulado Antitheses fidei, que se encuentra perdido en la actualidad, o que al menos no ha podido ser localizado para este trabajo" (p. 14). - Marked brownstaining throughout with waterstain to upper corner. Still an appealing copy. Schnurrer 248. Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an IV, 237. OCLC 491545005, 54509800.
8vo. (4), 86 pp. With 3 folding maps. Original printed wrappers. Informational publication issued by the New York Arab Information Center - The Research Section to argue the Arab cause among U.N. delegates, with contributions by Fathalla El Khatib, Khalid I. Babaa, Ism Kabbani and Omar Halig. Articles include "British Penetration and Imperialism in Yemen", "British Aggression Against the Imamate of Oman", and the "Buraimi Dispute". - Old ownership "M. Cain" to front cover; Arvada I.R.C. stamps. Information Papers Number 6.
Oblong 4to. 5 cloth-bound volumes with stamped titles, containing 253 original photographs mounted on cardboard with accompanying text. Extensive photo documentation of Polish Arabian horses, recording year of birth, ancestors, racing results, descendants, etc. - No copy in any library recorded in WorldCat or KVK. A fine, clean copy.
8vo. XVIII, 682 pp. With 236 photo illustrations, 97 maps and text-figures (some folding), and folded full-colour map of the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and Iran; map of "Communicationd of Iraq" in lower cover pouch. Original giltstamped green cloth. Geographical Handbooks Series (for official use only) B.R. 524 (Restricted). In-depth, profusely illustrated discussion of Iraq and the Arabian Gulf region, with a close description of what was then referred to as the "Trucial Coast" between Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Produced during WWII for use of the Naval Intelligence Division, "to provide, for the use of Commanding Officers, information in a comprehensive and convenient form about contries which they may be called upon to visit, not only in war but in peace-time". The book's contents are, "however, by no means confined to matters of purely naval interest. For many purposes (e.g. history, administration, resources, communications, etc.) countries must necessarily be treated as a whole, and no attempt is made to limit their treatment exclusively to coastal zones" (1942 preface). - Spine faded to yellow, interior sound. Ink ownership of M. H. Parry-Williams to front pastedown. OCLC 220468550.
8vo. XIII, (1), 558 pp. With 105 photo illustrations, 91 maps and text-figures (some folding), and 2 folded full-colour maps in back cover pocket. Original giltstamped green cloth. Geographical Handbooks Series (for official use only) B.R. 522 (Restricted). In-depth, profusely illustrated discussion of the Congo region. Produced during WWII for use of the Naval Intelligence Division, "to provide, for the use of Commanding Officers, information in a comprehensive and convenient form about contries which they may be called upon to visit, not only in war but in peace-time". The book's contents are, "however, by no means confined to matters of purely naval interest. For many purposes (e.g. history, administration, resources, communications, etc.) countries must necessarily be treated as a whole, and no attempt is made to limit their treatment exclusively to coastal zones" (1942 preface). - Spine and covers faded; edges and spine bronwstained. From the library of the English linguist Malcolm Guthrie (1903-72), arguably one of the most important Bantu scholars of his century, with his ms. ownership to flyleaf. His magnum opus, "Comparative Bantu", appeared in four volumes between 1967 and 1971.
Folio. 32 full-page wood-engraved plates including pictorial title. Original decorative blueboards gilt, rebacked preserving spine, new endpapers. Views include Jeddah, Mocha, Cairo, etc. This work is published without text. The plates are set on a stone coloured background. A couple of the plates are signed by William Measom. The suggested publication date is taken from an inscription on the original front pastedown (bound in), and is consistent with the dates of other works illustrated by Measom. - Occasional mostly light foxing and soiling. OCLC 23070449.
Small folio (218 x 340 mm). 19, (9) pp. With 5 folding plans, one measuring more than two metres in length. Original stiff printed wrappers. Extremely rare report on construction plans for a railway from Keneh (Qena) on the eastern shore or the Nile to Kosseir (al-Qosair) on the coast of the Red Sea. The project was never carried out. "La roue de Kéneh à Kosseir a éte étudiée dans un rapport de Ch. Nicour [...] qui déposa ses conclusions le 21 Février 1891 auprès du Conseil d'Administration des Chemins de fer de l'Etat égyptien. Ce rapport fut utilisé par J. Raimondi [...] dans son livre sur 'Le désert oriental égyptien du du Nil à la Mer Rouge' [...] Dans le chapitre V, intitulé 'Projet de chemin de fer de Kéneh à Kosseir [...]' Raimondi rappelle que, dès 1891, on avait formé le projet d'une ligne de chemin de fer de Kéneh à Kosseir. Le port, en effet [...] est le point de la mer Rouge le plus rapproché du Nil [...] Après avoir évalué les recettes probables de cette ligne [...] et avant d'étudier les problèmes de réalisation pratique [...] Raimondi reprend le rapport de Ch. Nicour pour donner une description de la route et une étude du tracé de ce chemin de fer, qui ne devait pas etre réalisé. La mission de Ch. Nicour étudia le terrain en décembre 1890. Elle décrit d'abord la route depuis Kéneh jusqu'à l'entrée de L'Quadi Hammamat, puis elle étudie les gorges de l'Quadi Hammamat proprement dit [...]" (Bernard). - The five plans include: 1) "Ligne de Kéneh à Kosseir. Route du Nord [...] Plan géneral et profil en long", ca. 62 x 205 cm. 2) "Plan de la grande gorge de El Hammamat", ca. 33 x 125 cm. 3) "Plan de la petit gorge de El-Sed", ca. 33 x 77 cm". 4) "Plan de petit gorge de E-Rieh", ca. 33 x 94 cm. 5) "Plan de ville de Kosseir", ca. 59 x 90 cm. - Binding lightly wrinkled and duststained in places, but altogether very well preserved. Inscribed on the upper cover by Yacoub Artin Pasha (1842-1919), the Armenian-born historian and Egyptian Minister of Education, to Julius Franz (1831-1915, "Frantz Pacha"), the German-born senior architect to the Egyptian Viceroy. André Bernard, De Koptos à Kosseir, p. 26. Not in OCLC.
8vo. (8), 83, (1) pp. (8), 57, (1) pp. (8), 74 pp. (8), 52 pp. (4), 26 pp., final blank f. (4), 26 pp. 38 pp. (index). Publisher's printed green cloth. A manual of "geographical, economic, historical, social, religious and political" information compiled for the British delegates to the Peace Conference that took place in Versailles in 1919, here issued "for public use" for the first time. The extensive section on the Arabian coastal regions includes not only detailed statistics (giving the population of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah at 6,000, 20,000, and 15,000 inhabitants, respectively), but also, in a separate appendix, the full text of the treaties signed between the United Kingdom and the Sheikhs and rulers of the "Trucial Coast" in 1820 and 1853, including the names of all signatories: Sh. Hassan bin Rahmah for Ras al-Khaimah, Sh. Shakbout for Abu Dhabi, Sh. Zayed bin Syf for Dubai, Sh. Sultan bin Suggur for Sharjah, Sh. Rashid bin Hamid for Ajman, Sh. Abdullah bin Rashid for Umm al-Quwayn, etc. - Issued as vol. XIII of the "Peace Handbooks" by the Historical Section of the Foreign Office. Comprises in all: nos. 76 (Persian Gulf), 77 (French India), 78 (French Indo-China), 79 (Portuguese India), 80 (Portuguese Timor), and 81 (Macao). - Binding slightly stained. Withdrawn from the University Library of Manchester (their ownership, bookplate, and deaccession stamp to endpapers). - Rare. OCLC 28122772.
10 text volumes bound in 11 (8vo) and 2 atlas vols. (oblong folio), altogether 13 vols. With a total of 300 engr. plates (13 folding, 2 in original hand colour, some with touches of colour) and 160 engr. portraits as well as 6 (1 folding) facsimiles, almost all on China paper. Green grained half morocco, spines gilt. First edition, almost never encountered complete as thus. Important source for the history and activities of the 1798 French expedition to Egypt, published in ten text volumes by Louis Reybaud and two atlas volumes. The portraits of the members of the expedition (usually forming part of the text volumes) have here been bound separately; also contains two additional portraits (not counted). "The 160 profile portraits by Dutertre [...] are of particular interest" (Blackmer). Many of the plates showing views, antiquities, maps etc. were engraved after drawings by Vivant Denon, whose work opened up the Middle East for western eyes as no other had done before (cf. Henze II, 50). - Plates numbered 1-309 (each of the 13 folding plates counting as a double), followed by "dernière planche" and 3 maps. Five of the facsimiles have been bound at the end of the second atlas volume, another in vol. 3. The text volumes contain the "Histoire ancienne" (vols. 1-2) and the "Histoire moderne de l'Égypte" (vols. 9-10) as well as the expedition report proper (vols. 3-8). All text volumes have four title pages (slightly departing from those in Blackmer's copy). Vol. 1 also contains a "Rapport" of the work for the Académie by G. Saint-Hilaire, dated Nov. 1836, which names Louis Reybaud as "principal rédacteur". - A magnificent set in period bindings, interior clean and spotless throughout. No complete copy recorded at auction within the last decades. Blackmer 1476. Gay 2209. Cf. Hage Chahine 4277 and Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 80 (both citing individual text volumes only).
8vo. (8), 183, (8) ff., last blank f. With woodcut printer's device on t. p. and three folding woodcut plates. - (Bound after) II: Bruto, Giovanni Michele. De rebus a Carolo V. caesare Romanorum imperatore gestis, oratio. Ibid., 1555. (48) ff. With woodcut printer's device on title-page and different, larger device on last f.; several woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum with ms label to spine. Traces of ties. Re-issue of the first edition, published the previous year. This documentation of the North African expeditions of Charles V against Tunis and the Arabian Coast was compiled by the Imperial envoy Scepper (d. 1554) from eyewitness accounts by Nicolas de Villegaignon and Juan Cristobal Calvete de Estrelle, augmented by extracts from Giovio and others. The remarkable views of sieges show the environs of Tunis as well as Algiers and El Kef (Aphrodisium). - Bound at the beginning of the volume is the first edition of Bruto's first work, a polished prose encomium for Charles V, dedicated to his son, King Philip II of Spain. Giovanni Bruto (1515-94), a banished Italian scholar, spent a large part of his life travelling and served as court historian to Emperors Rudolph II and Maximilian II. - A very clean, practically spotless copy. Title page of Bruto stamped; final flyleaf replaced by five modern blank leaves. With fine, contemporary acquisition note by the Austrian statesman and military commander Count Georg von Helfenstein-Gundelfingen (1518-73) on the pastedown, dated London, 1559 ("Emptus Lundini Angliae Metropol."), from the time of his diplomatic mission in Great Britain. "In 1558 Helfenstein was Imperial Governor of Upper Austria, in 1559 Prefect of the Imperial Court. At this time he was sent to England by Emperor Ferdinand to pursue a marriage between Ferdinand's third son, Archduke Charles, with Queen Elizabeth" (cf. ADB XI, 687). Later in the Fürstenberg Library in Donaueschingen. I: BM-STC Dutch 183. Göllner 938. Paulitschke 355, Schottenloher 28.353. Graesse VI, 294. Palau 262.149. Gay 1376 ("précieux recueil"). Cf. Yerasimos 179. Not in Adams, Brunet or Kainbacher. - II: IA 126.080. Adams B 2973. BM-STC Dutch 43. Graesse I, 558. Palau 36.453. Brunet I, 1307 ("Peu commun").
Folio (262 x 358 mm). 35, (1) pp. With 9 plates. Original wrappers printed in red, stored loosely within original dedicatory giltstamped cloth portfolio with white moirée endpapers. Handsome facsimile publication produced on the occasion of the centenary of the University of Turin (27 October 1906), under the editorship of the professor of philosophy Ettore Stampini (1855-1930) for the Academic Council. Dedication copy for Sultan Abdülhamid II (1842-1918), the 99th caliph of Islam and the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan was to be deposed in 1909; but two years later, Italy and the Ottoman Empire would go to war over Libya. - Rather strongly browned throughout, as usual; still a good copy with fine provenance. OCLC 16164614.
4to. (48) pp. All edges sprinkled in red. Disbound. Exceedingly rare separate "offprint" issue, with Heyinger's imprint and date on title page, of this account usually only encountered bound after a half-title as part of Francisco Caccia's "Monumentum Gloriae Seraphicae" (bibliographically unrecorded thus). Contains the German translation of the Sultan's mandate by which suzerainity over several holy sites in Jerusalem (particularly, two vaults in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, part of Golgotha, the Seven Arches of the Virgin, and the Stone of the Anointing) was restored to the Franciscans. Includes relevant correspondence and indulgences (all in German). - Some browning and staining. Removed from a collection; old number "23" on t. p. An early work from the press of Andreas Heyinger, active in Vienna from 1692 to 1732. Cf. VD 17, 12:113676Z.
4to. (7) ff., 1 blank f., (4) ff. With woodcut device on title, large historiated woodcut initials, and an additional engraved folding plan of Tripolis (204 x 285 mm), not called for by bibliographies. 18th century full vellum with giltstamped red morocco label to spine (very similar to the bindings done for the Venetian library of Giacomo Soranzo). First dated publication of Ulloa's account of the siege of Tripolis in Italian. Includes the three-page dedication to Johann Jakob Fugger - the only place in the book where Ulloa's name appears. The author, a courtier of King Philip II, celebrates the defence of St Angelo's fortress on Malta, modern Libya. - In the 1551 Siege of Tripoli, the Ottoman fleet vanquished the Knights of Malta in Tripoli; the city was captured on 15 August by Sinan Pasha after six days of bombardment. The knights, many of them French, were returned to Malta upon the intervention of the French ambassador, and shipped onboard his galleys, while the mercenaries were enslaved. Murad Agha, the Ottoman commander of Tajura since 1536, was named as the Pashalik of the city. The siege was the first step in the all-out Italian War of 1551-59 in the European theatre. In 1553, Dragut was nominated commander of Tripoli by Suleiman, making the city a centre for piratical raids in the Mediterranean and the capital of the Ottoman province of Tripolitania. In a famous attack from Tripoli, in 1558, Dragut attacked Reggio and took all its inhabitants as slaves to Tripoli. In 1560, a powerful naval force was sent to recapture Tripoli, but that force was defeated in the Battle of Djerba, an event also described in Ulloa's book. The end of the volume is brought up by an interesting four-page account of Malta ("Descrittione dell'Isola di Malta") and a list of the names of Christian knights who died in the siege. The fine engraved plate bound after the preliminaries, entitled "Il vero disegno del porto, della città, della fortezza, et del sito dove è posta Tripoli di Barbaria. Ven. l'anno 1567 alla libreria della Colonna" appeared a year after the book. It is engraved by Paolo Forlani. - A clean, well preserved copy. Edit 16, CNCE 37528. BM-STC Italian 704. Gay 1494. Palau 343.401. Göllner 1134. Graesse VI, 224. Olschki L II, 222. Cf. Mortimer 509 (with note on this edition). Not in Adams, Blackmer or Aboussouan. This edition not in Atabey.
4to. (7) ff., 1 blank f., 88, (4) ff. With woodcut printer's device to title page. 19th century vellum with giltstamped red spine labels. First dated publication of Ulloa's account of the siege of Tripolis in Italian. Includes the three-page dedication to Johann Jakob Fugger - the only place in the book where Ulloa's name appears. The author, a courtier of King Philip II, celebrates the defence of St Angelo's fortress on Malta, modern Libya. - In the 1551 Siege of Tripoli, the Ottoman fleet vanquished the Knights of Malta in Tripoli; the city was captured on 15 August by Sinan Pasha after six days of bombardment. The knights, many of them French, were returned to Malta upon the intervention of the French ambassador, and shipped onboard his galleys, while the mercenaries were enslaved. Murad Agha, the Ottoman commander of Tajura since 1536, was named as the Pashalik of the city. The siege was the first step in the all-out Italian War of 1551-59 in the European theatre. In 1553, Dragut was nominated commander of Tripoli by Suleiman, making the city a centre for piratical raids in the Mediterranean and the capital of the Ottoman province of Tripolitania. In a famous attack from Tripoli, in 1558, Dragut attacked Reggio and took all its inhabitants as slaves to Tripoli. In 1560, a powerful naval force was sent to recapture Tripoli, but that force was defeated in the Battle of Djerba, an event also described in Ulloa's book. The end of the volume is brought up by an interesting four-page account of Malta ("Descrittione dell'Isola di Malta") and a list of the names of Christian knights who died in the siege. - Occasional slight browning and brownstaining (more pronounced on title page); a few pages near end show insignificant edge flaws. Early 19th century ms. bibliographical note on flyleaf. A good copy. Edit 16, CNCE 37528. BM-STC Italian 704. Gay 1494. Palau 343.401. Göllner 1134. Graesse VI, 224. Olschki L II, 222. Cf. Mortimer 509 (with note on this edition). Not in Adams, Blackmer or Aboussouan. This edition not in Atabey.
4to. (4 [instead of 10]), 464 [instead of 466] ff. (wants the first 6 ff. of prelims, final 2 ff. of text and the 6 ff. of "special advices" and index, all supplied in facsimile). With historiated woodcut initials. Splendid modern red morocco, both covers richly gilt, gilt fillets to raised bands. Stored in custom-made cloth clamshell box with gilt spine title. The first English edition of Ludovico di Varthema's famous travels to Arabia, Persia, and India: the highly important and adventurous narrative containing the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates. On his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. All early editions of Varthema’s "Itinerario" are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1654 reprint; cf. below). - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jeddah and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information deemed noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - Published as an extensive part of "The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies" - one of the first English versions of the significant collection edited by Pietro Martire d'Anghiera (Peter Martyr, 1457-1526). The first independently published English translation would not appear until 1863: Varthema's travelogue was included for the first time in the present translated edition of Martyr's "History". The translation, with some omissions, is that of Decades I-III of "De Orbe Novo" by Martyr, with additions from other sources, edited by Richard Eden and Richard Willes. Willes was a member of the Jesuits from 1565 to 1572 and was familiar with Maffei, the Jesuit chronicler whose account he drew on for this work. Under the benefaction of the Earl of Bedford, Willes expanded Eden's translation to include, apart from Varthema's travels, four Decades and an abridgement of Decades V-VIII; Frobisher's voyage for a Northwest Passage, Sebastian Cabot's voyages to the Arctic for the Moscovy Company, Cortez's conquest of Mexico, Pereira's description of China, 1565, Acosta and Maffei's notices of Japan, 1573, and the first two English voyages to West Africa. Also, this is the first account in English of Magellan's circumnavigation, as well as the first printed work to advocate a British colony in North America. - First 6 and final 8 ff. supplied in facsimile. Occasional faint contemp. marginalia. 19th c. calligraphic note, quoted from Brunet, on flyleaf. From the library of Sir Arthur Helps (1813-75), English writer, dean of the Privy Council, and Cambridge Apostle, with his armorial bookplate and autograph ownership. Howgego M65. Brunet I, 294. OCLC 5296745. LCCN 02-7743. European Americana 577/2. Church 119. Streeter Sale 24. Arents 23. Borba de Moraes, p. 33. Hill 533. BM-STC 649. Sabin 1562. Cordier, Japonica 71. Field 485. Cf. exhibition cat. “Hajj - The Journey Through Art” (Doha, 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2239f. (other editions only). Not in the Atabey or Blackmer collections.
4to. (10), 466, (6) ff. With historiated woodcut initials. Splendid modern full navy blue morocco, bands on spine with title showing faded gilt, covers double-ruled gilt. The first English edition of Ludovico di Varthema's famous travels to Arabia, Persia, and India: the highly important and adventurous narrative containing the first printed eyewitness account of any place in today's United Arab Emirates. On his return journey from Mecca (which he was the first Westerner to describe), Varthema visited Ras al-Khaimah ("Giulfar") and portrayed the city as "most excellent and abounding in everything", with "a good seaport", and whose inhabitants are "all Muslims". While Montalboddo's famous anthology of discoveries, printed in 1507, contained the first printed reference to the Arabian Gulf region, it was Varthema's work, published only three years later, that offered the first actual report from the region by a Western traveller who had visited the coast. All early editions of Varthema’s "Itinerario" are exceedingly rare (even the 2013 Hajj exhibition at the MIA, Doha, only featured the 1654 reprint; cf. below). - Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502. In 1503 he reached Alexandria and ascended the Nile to Cairo, continuing to Beirut, Tripoli, Aleppo and Damascus, where, adopting Islam and taking the name of Yunas, he joined a Mameluke escort of a Hajj caravan and began the pilgrimage to Mecca. Varthema was amazed by what he observed: "Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there", he begins, and arriving at the Great Mosque, continues, "it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the fragrances which are smelt within this temple." Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic and Islam, Varthema was able to appreciate the local culture of the places he visited. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples [...] of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten hear-says." His good fortune did not continue unabated, however: after embarking at Jeddah and sailing to Aden, he was denounced as a Christian spy and imprisoned. He secured his release and proceeded on an extensive tour of southwest Arabia. Stopping in Sanaa and Zebid as well as a number of smaller cities, he describes the people, the markets and trade, the kind of fruits and animals that are plentiful in the vicinity, and any historical or cultural information deemed noteworthy. Returning to Aden, and after a brief stop in Ethiopia, he set sail for India. In addition to visiting Persia, Varthema explored the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, including a stay at Calicut at the beginning of 1505. He also purports to have made extensive travels around the Malay peninsula and the Moluccas. Returning to Calicut in August 1505, he took employment with the Portuguese at Cochin and, in 1508, made his way back to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope. - First published in 1510, Varthema's account became an immediate bestseller. In addition to his fascinating account of Egypt, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the holy Muslim cities, "Varthema brought into European literature an appreciation of the areas east of India [...] which it had previously not received from the sea-travelers and which confirmed by firsthand observations many of the statements made earlier by Marco Polo and the writers of antiquity" (Lach, I. i. 166). "Varthema was a real traveller. His reports on the social and political conditions of the various lands he visited are reliable as being gathered from personal contact with places and peoples. His account of the overland trade is of great value in that we are made to see it before it had begun to give way to the all-seas route. He even heard of a southern continent and of a region of intense cold and very short days, being the first European probably after Marco Polo to bring back the rumor of Terra Australis" (Cox I, 260). - Published as an extensive part of "The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies" - one of the first English versions of the significant collection edited by Pietro Martire d'Anghiera (Peter Martyr, 1457-1526). The first independently published English translation would not appear until 1863: Varthema's travelogue was included for the first time in the present translated edition of Martyr's "History". The translation, with some omissions, is that of Decades I-III of "De Orbe Novo" by Martyr, with additions from other sources, edited by Richard Eden and Richard Willes. Willes was a member of the Jesuits from 1565 to 1572 and was familiar with Maffei, the Jesuit chronicler whose account he drew on for this work. Under the benefaction of the Earl of Bedford, Willes expanded Eden's translation to include, apart from Varthema's travels, four Decades and an abridgement of Decades V-VIII; Frobisher's voyage for a Northwest Passage, Sebastian Cabot's voyages to the Arctic for the Moscovy Company, Cortez's conquest of Mexico, Pereira's description of China, 1565, Acosta and Maffei's notices of Japan, 1573, and the first two English voyages to West Africa. Also, this is the first account in English of Magellan's circumnavigation, as well as the first printed work to advocate a British colony in North America. - Sympathetically washed but not pressed; some minor repairs to title not affecting printed surface. Some remaining toning and staining in small areas of a few leaves. Generally a wide-margined and appealing copy. - Provenance: acquired from Quaritch in 1975 by Gregory S. Javitch (1898-1980), a Russian-born, Canadian leader in the land reclamation sector in Ontario. Javitch formed an important collection of 2,500 items entitled "Peoples of the New World", encompassing both North and South America, which was acquired by the Bruce Peel Special Collections at the University of Alberta. It was considered the finest such private collection in Canada at the time and formed the cornerstone of the library’s Special collections. The present volume remained in Javitch's private collection was acquired directly from his heirs. Howgego M65. Brunet I, 294. OCLC 5296745. LCCN 02-7743. Alden, European Americana 577/2. Church 119. Streeter Sale 24. Arents 23. Borba de Moraes, p. 33. Hill 533. BM-STC 649. Sabin 1562. Cordier, Japonica 71. Field 485. Cf. exhibition cat. “Hajj - The Journey Through Art” (Doha, 2013), p. 90 (1655 Dutch ed. only). Macro, Bibliography of the Arabian Peninsula, 2239f. (other editions only). Not in the Atabey or Blackmer collections.
8vo. (8), 86 pp., final blank f. Contemporary vellum. Second edition of Victorius's introduction to the Ethiopian language, first published in 1552. This is the first printing with the newly designed and cut Ethiopic types; an "Alphabetum" appeared one year later. In his preface, Venerius relates how the types were cut after designd received from Jesuit missionaries in Ethiopia. One set of types was sent to them, one was kept for the Propaganda Press. - Front inner hinge broken; title loosened. Some browning throughout. Ms. ownership of Joseph Venturi in Hebrew and Latin on title page, with his note "rara" and date of acquisition "3 Oct. 1785" on pastedown opposite. Smitskamp, PO 218. Vater/Jülg 7. Fumagalli 1173. Leslau 610. De Gubernatis 173. Silvestre de Sacy 2874. OCLC 50572132.
Diam. cm 11, a colori, anni '80.
Roma, ENIT, 8vo spillato, nella cop. lit. a colori, pp. (24) compl. ill. da foto in nero.
Mit Abbildungen.
anni '30 circa (riproduzioni posteriori) gruppo di quattordici in marron e nove in nero, tutte circa cm. 25/28 x 21.
Torino, 2009, 8vo brossura editoriale con copertina illustrata a colori, pp. 112 con illustrazioni a colori n.t.
Belgio, 1988, 4to brossura con copertina a colori, pp. (34) completamente illustrato da fotografie a colori.
