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You are here: CollectionsOnline  /  A voyage into the Levant: perform'd by command of the late French King. Containing the antient and modern state of the islands of the archipelago; as also of Constantinople, the coasts of the Black Sea, Armenia, Georgia, the frontiers of Persia, and Asia Minor ... By M. Tournefort ... To which is prefix'd the author's life, in a letter to M. Begon: as also his elogium, pronounc'd by M. Fontenelle, ... Adorn'd with an accurate map of the author's travels, not in the French edition: done by Mr. Senex. In two volumes. (Vol. II.)
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TOURNEFORT, Joseph Pitton de (1656--1708)
[Relation d'un voyage du Levant. English. 1718]
A voyage into the Levant: perform'd by command of the late French King. Containing the antient and modern state of the islands of the archipelago; as also of Constantinople, the coasts of the Black Sea, Armenia, Georgia, the frontiers of Persia, and Asia Minor ... By M. Tournefort ... To which is prefix'd the author's life, in a letter to M. Begon: as also his elogium, pronounc'd by M. Fontenelle, ... Adorn'd with an accurate map of the author's travels, not in the French edition: done by Mr. Senex. In two volumes. (Vol. II.)
London (Place), printed for D. Browne, A. Bell, J. Darby, A. Bettesworth, J. Pemberton, C. Rivington, J. Hooke, R. Cruttenden and T. Cox, J. Battley, E. Symon,, 1718.
2 vols ; 25.0 cm. (4º)
I: xlii, 402 p., [1] engr. map, [88] engr. pl. (some fold.): illus.
II: [4], 398, [18] p., [64] engr. pl. (some fold.)

The botanist Pitton de Tournefort was sent on a mission to the Levant by Louis XIV in 1700, accompanied by an artist, Claude Aubriet, and a doctor. They travelled extensively in the Archipelago, visited Crete, Constantinople, the coasts of the Black Sea, and then travelled overland through Armenia to Persia. The author prepared vol. I for the press before his death in 1708, but the anonymous editor kept it back until vol. II was ready, the pair being published together in 1717 in French. This is the first English edition. The plates feature costumes, buildings, views, maps, and zoological and botanical specimens; the latter made Tournefort's work the most thorough botanical survey of the region to date. After an unnumbered map, the plates are numbered 1--152, but in volume I the numbers do not correspond to the intended binding order as indicated by page references. Dedication signed 'John Ozell, the Translator'. 'The Life Of M. Tournefort' signed 'Lauthier', i.e. Honoré Marie Lauthier. ESTC t133108.

Copy Notes Annotations in ink on front free-endpaper of vol. I.

Binding Contemporary Cambridge-style calf, blind-panelled, gilt-tooled spine.

Reference Number 267

Additional Names Ozell, John (d.$1743); Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de (1657--1757); Shepherds; TOURNEFORT, Joseph Pitton de (1656--1708); Lauthier, Honoré Maria; Senex, John (d.$1740)


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