Beschreibung:

TOURNEFORT, Joseph Pitton de (1656-1708). Relation d'un Voyage au Levant... Contenant L'Histoire Ancienne & Moderne de plusieurs Isles de l'Archipel, de Constantinople, des Côtes de la Mer Noire, de l'Armenie, de la Georgie, de Frontieres de Perse & de l'Asie Mineure. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1717. 2 volumes, 4° (250 x 185mm). 152 engraved maps and plates (5 folding) by Aubriet and others, illustrations. (Occasional light browning and spotting, lacking blanks c2 in vol.I and final leaf 4G2 in vol.II.) Contemporary French mottled calf gilt, arms of Louis XV on covers (cf.Olivier 2495.fer 2 for a larger version), spines in six compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-pieces in two, the others decorated with various small tools including fleur-de-lys and crowned double-L monogram (some scuffing, spines rubbed and chipped at head and foot). FIRST EDITION. The botanist and professor of medicine Tournefort was despatched to the Levant by Louis XIV in 1700. He was accompanied by the great botanical artist Claude Aubriet (1665-1742) and a doctor: Andreas Gundelsheimer. They toured the Cyclades, the Northern Sporades, Crete, Constantinople, Asia Minor, the coast of the Black Sea and then overland through Armenia to Persia. Tournefort had intended visiting Ephesus and Egypt, but Aubriet was recovering from a bout of fever and his weakened state of health necessitated an early end to the tour. The travellers returned to Paris in June 1702. Blackmer 1318; cf. Blunt pp.124-126. (2)