[?Fletcher, Giles (bap. 1546-1611)]

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

The Policy of the Turkish Empire. The first Booke [all published]. London: John Windet for W. S[tansby], 1597

small 4to (179 x 128mm.), ff. [4], 82, illustration: title within woodcut border [McKerrow & Ferguson 215], woodcut arms on verso of dedicatee, woodcut headpieces and initials, binding: contemporary mottled sheep, flat spine gilt, title slightly shaved at outer margin, extremities rubbed, spine ends chipped with small loss

Literature

Blackmer 1327; STC 24335 (noting that the Peterborough Cathedral Library copy contains an early MS attribution to G. Fletcher the elder); Göllner II, 2315; Weber II, 684; not in Atabey

Catalogue Note

first edition. This work is attributed to Giles Fletcher, ambassador to Russia in 1588-1589 and poet, who describes Turkish manners and customs, the state of the Ottoman Empire and an accurate account of Islam ''without the extreme prejudice usually exhibited against Moslems'' (Blackmer catalogue).

The only other copy we can trace at auction in over 35 years is the Boies Penrose-Blackmer copy (Boies Penrose, his sale in these rooms, 9 November 1971, lot 257; Henry M. Blackmer II, his sale in these rooms, 11 October 1989, lot 118).