Valle, Pietro della (1586-1652).

Estimate

800 - 1,200 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

The travels of Sig. Pietro della Valle, a noble Roman, into East-India and Arabia Deserta. London: J. Macock for Henry Herringham, 1665

folio (294 x 185mm.), [8], 480pp., illustration: double-page engraved map of "East India", 3 engraved plates, 5 woodcut plans within text, binding: contemporary blind-ruled calf, spine gilt in compartments, vellum spine liner, rust hole to U2 affecting a few letters, small tears with loss (not affecting text), slight creasing, spotting or staining, binding worn

Provenance

signature on front endpaper, apparently Jo. Boyd, possibly Sir John Boyd (1718-1800), who was a director of the East India Company between 1753 and 1764, serving as the company's deputy chairman in 1759-60.

Literature

Wing V47

Catalogue Note

Della Valle's text comprises 54 letters written to the Neapolitan physician Mario Schipano during his twelve years of travels. He left Venice in 1614 on a pilgrimage to Palestine, proceeding to Damascus and Aleppo, crossing Mesopotamia to Baghdad, and into Persia where he married the Circassian Sitti Maani, who accompanied him on his further travels. In Persia, he sojourned at the court of Shah Abas, but his wife died at Persepolis in 1622. His travels then took him further east to the coast of India, and from Goa to Muscat, thence to Aleppo by way of Basra, finally reaching Rome in 1626. The translation from the Italian original of 1650-63 is by Sir Thomas Roe. There were three different imprints in 1665, for J. Martin and J. Allestry; for John Place and, as in the present copy, for Henry Herringham.