Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

Beschreibung des Morgenlandes und einiger andern Länder. Neue Ausgabe... Erster [-Dritter] Theil (Description of the East and Some Other Countries. A New Edition... First [-Third] Volume)

Pococke, Richard; Johann Friedrich Breyer (transl.); Johann Christian Daniel Schreber (ed.)

Erlangen: Waltherschen Buchhandlung, 1791. New German edition. Hardcover. Three volumes, quarto (25.2 by 21 cm), published between 1791 and 1792. With 179 (of 180) engraved plates (many folding, including 9 maps). Decorative initials and ornaments. Each volume with engraved half-title. Complete index in the third volume. Text in German. Vol. 1: [18], XXXII, 428 pp; 77 engraved plates (numbered I-XXXII, XXXIV-LXXVI; 2 unnumbered; plate XXXIII noted in the plate list "ist überzählet" (over-counted, i.e., not present); Vol. 2: [10], 392 pp; 36 engraved plates (numbered I-XXXVI; plate I folding map of the Holy Land bound at rear); Vol. 3: [10], 408 pp; 66 (of 67) engraved plates (numbered XXXVII-XLII, several plates bound out of order; plate LXXXIX numbered LXXXXIX; plate XLIII folding map of Asia Minor, and plate LXIII folding map of Thrace and Greece bound at rear; lacks plate LXIV Church at Thessaloniki. Contemporary three-quarter vellum over decorative paper covered boards (vellum soiled, mild rubbing/wear about the edges). Gilt-lettered labels at spine (rubbed). Deckled fore- and bottom edges. Sporadic light foxing and light to moderate age-toning throughout the text (occasional leaves more heavily darkened). Clean tears at bottom margins plates XIII and XIV in vol. 2 (Baalbek) just extending into images, else a good, though incomplete, set, with notably clean plates, and all 9 maps in fine condition.

Remarkable work containing an extensive description of Pococke's travels to Egypt (Vol. I); Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Cyprus, Crete, and the Greek Archipelago (Vol. II), and the Near East, Thrace and Greece (Vol. III). Each volume profusely illustrated with folding copperplate engravings, including maps, plans, views of temples, pyramids, tombs, antiquities, plants, animals, and local residents. Richard Pococke (1704-1765) was an English anthropologist and prelate who started his career as vicar-general of the dioceses Waterford and Lismore. His fascination with the Near East was born out of his biblical studies and led him to spend four years traveling through these lands. He arrived in Egypt in 1737 where he visited Thebes, Memphis, Dendera and Philae. Further travels took him to Jerusalem and Baalbek. He also visited Cyprus, Crete, parts of Asia Minor and Greece. On his way back, in 1741, he explored the Mer de Glace in the valley near Chamonix. An account of this expedition appeared in 1743, and Pococke came to be regarded as the pioneer of Alpine travel. Pococke later resumed his ecclesiastical career, taking the position of Bishop of Ossory in 1756. Originally published in two volumes in 1743 and 1745, Pococke's Description of the East was a late eighteenth-century best-seller, translated into German, Dutch and French. This edition contains the German translation by D. Johann Friedrich Breyer, who taught logic and metaphysics at Erlangen, and notes by the naturalist, Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber. Good-. Item #21155

References: VD18 90273877 (vol. 1); VD18 90274288 (vol. 2); VD18 90273885 (vol. 3).

Price: $950.00