Carsten Niebuhr | Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays [with Description de l'Arabie], 1774-80, 3 volumes

Carsten Niebuhr

Two works, comprising:

Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins. Amsterdam: S.J. Baalde, 1776-1780

FIRST FRENCH EDITION, 2 volumes, half-title in volume 2, engraved title-page vignettes in each volume, text in French, 124 engraved plates, maps, and plans (many folding, some with hand-coloured sections), volume one lacking half-title and later part of list of plates, some spotting and browning at extremities, a few plates with repaired closed tears at margins, one plate in volume one creased and slightly frayed at margins;

Description de l'Arabie, faite sur des observations propres et des avis recueillis dans les lieux mêmes. Amsterdam: S.J. Baalde, 1774

Second French edition, half-title, engraved title-page vignette, text in French, 25 engraved plates (including table généalogique, many plates folding), errata leaf at end, some marginal notes in a nineteenth-century hand, some spotting and browning at extremities, plate 31 with remnants of old tape repair at upper margin (not affecting plate)

3 volumes in all, 4to (253 x 208mm.), uniformly bound in contemporary tree calf, blind-tooled borders to covers, rebacked with extremities repaired, spines gilt, extremities rubbed 

Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, is a profusely illustrated work. Volume one deals with Egypt and Arabia, whilst volume 2 covers India, Persia (Persepolis), Mesopotamia, Syria and the Lebanon. Although Neibuhr explored not much more than a small triangle in Yemen, his work on Arabia was the first European attempt at a complete account of Arabia, its people and their way of life. The plates include fine maps of the eastern coast of the Red Sea, Yemen, and the Persian Gulf, and views of the mosques of Mecca and Medina.

LITERATURE:

Description de l'Arabie: Gay 3589; cf. Atabey 873 (first edition)