Tournefort | A voyage into the Levant, 1718, 2 volumes

BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE EARLS OF HADDINGTON, LOTS 54-108

TOURNEFORT, JOSEPH PITTON DE

A voyage into the Levant. London: D. Browne and others, 1718

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, 2 volumes, 4to (240 x 195mm.), 153 engraved plates and maps, a few folding, contemporary panelled calf, some browning and spotting

This first edition in English appeared the year after the original French publication. Tournefort was a botanist who set out for the Levant in 1700 at the behest of Louis XIV, travelling extensively in the Archipelago, visiting most of the islands in the Cyclades and many in the Northern Sporades. He spent a considerable time in Crete before going on to Constantinople and Asia Minor.

LITERATURE:

ESTC T133108; cf. Atabey 959-961 (various editions) and Blackmer 1318 (first edition, 1717)

PROVENANCE:

George Baillie (1664–1738), engraved armorial bookplate