Forum Rare Books

Description of Gujarat (Northwest India) by the director of the VOC

TWIST, Johan van. Generale beschrijvinghe van Indien. Ende in 't besonder kort verhaal van de regering, ceremonien, handel, vruchten en geleghentheydt van 't Koninckrijck van Gusuratten, staende onder de beheerschinghe van den Groot-Machtighen Koninck Cajahan: anders genaemt den grooten Mogor ... Hier achter is by-gevoeght de aenwijsinge van meest alle kusten, drooghten ende reeden, om door gantsch Indien te zeylen.
Amsterdam, for Joost Hartgers, 1648. 4to. With woodcut printer's device on the title-page. 19th-century marbled wrappers. [1], [1 blank], 94 pp. Full description

€ 2,500

India & Sri Lanka Navigation VOC

Richly illustrated journey of Nicholas II of Russia through Asia

UKHTOMSKY (UCHTOMSKIJ), Esper Esperovich and Hermann BRUNNHOFER (translator). Orientreise seiner kaiserlichen Hoheit des Grossfürsten-Thronfolgers Nikolaus Alexandrowitsch von Russland, 1890-1891.
Leipzig, F.A. Brockhaus, 1894-1899. 2 volumes. 4to. With engraved portrait of Nicholas, 7 photogravures, 541 wood engravings after drawings and photographs and 5 chromolithographed maps. Publisher's cloth, richly blocked in black, gold and grey, gilt edges. [4], 476; [4], 482 pp. Full description

€ 8,500

Austria Balkan & Greece Central Europe China Eastern Europe India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Italy North Africa & Egypt Russia (incl. Siberia) Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages East Asia Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

Della Valle's travels in Persia and the Near East, "one of the finest works of travel literature" (Howgego)

VALLE, Pietro della. De volkome beschryving der voortreffelijke reizen van de deurluchtige reisiger Pietro della Valle, edelman van Romen, in veel voorname gewesten des werrelts, sedert het jaer 1615, tot in 't jaar 1626 gedaan ...
Amsterdam, Abraham Wolfgang, 1666 (each volume title: Abraham Wolfgang, widow of Jan Hendriks Boom, Jan Rieuwertsz., 1664-1665). 6 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With 25 engraved plates. 19th-century vellum. Full description

€ 12,500

India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia North Africa & Egypt

Della Valle's travels in the Near East, Persia and Arabia: "one of the finest works of travel literature" (Howgego)

VALLE, Pietro della. Reiss-Beschreibung in unterschiedliche Theile der Welt, nemlich in Türckey, Egypten, Palestina, Persien, Ost-Indien, und andere weit entlegene Landschaften ...
Geneva, Johann Hermann Widerholds, 1674. 4 volumes bound as 1. Folio. With 31 engraved plates (1 folding), including frontispiece and portraits of the author and his wife, by Jean Jacques Thourneyser. Contemporary vellum. [20], 218, [12], [2 blank]; [4], 236, [12]; [4], 244, [13], [1 blank]; [6], 231, [17] pp. Full description

€ 15,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southern Asia Turkey & Ottoman Empire

First English edition of Varthema’s travels in the Middle East and beyond

[VARTHEMA, Ludovico di, Pietro Martire d’ANGHIERA and others]. The history of travayle in the West and East Indies, ...
London, Richard Jugge, 1577. Narrow 4to (19 x 13.5 cm). With a woodcut celestial map of the South Polar sky in the text. With 14 leaves in a 19th-century facsimile. Gold- and blind-tooled maroon morocco (ca. 1860?), in allusive style. In a modern clam-shell box. [10], 466, [6] ll. Full description

€ 120,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Ceylon Early Printing - 16th century Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southern Asia West Asia

Very early European eyewitness description of India, confirming Marco Polo’s statements

VARTHEMA, Ludivico di. The Navigation and v[o]yages of Lewes Vertomannus, Gentelman of the citie of Rome, to the regions of Arabia, Egypte, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and East India, both within and without the ryver of Ganges, etc. In the yeere of our Lorde 1503. Conteynyng many notable and straunge thinges, both hystoricall and naturall. Translated out of Latine into Engylshe, by Richarde Eden.
London, Richard Jugge, 1577. 4to. With historiated woodcut initials. Splendid modern full navy blue morocco, bands on spine with title showing faded gilt, covers double-ruled gilt. [10], 466, [6] ll. Full description

€ 265,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Arctic & Antarctic Imaginary Voyages & Utopias India & Sri Lanka Indonesia / Dutch East Indies Iran / Persia Islamic Art, Culture & Science Religion (16th Century) Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia USA - United States of America

An English edition of the first account of a European travelling through the Middle East,
visiting Mecca and Medina, to Persia, India, and the East Indies

VARTHEMA, Ludovico di. [transl. John Winter JONES, ed. Norman Mosley PENZER] The itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508 as translated from the original Italian edition of 1510, by John Winter Jones, F.S.A. in 1863 for the Hakluyt Society with a discourse on Varthema and his travels in Southern Asia by Sir Richard Carnac Temple [...].
London, The Argonaut Press, 1928. 4to. With 5 maps, the facsimile text of the title-page and colophon of the original 1510 book of Di Varthema, 1 plate, and a small blue illustration (similar to the blind-tooled image on the front board) on the title-page. Half white and half blue cloth with gold lettering on spine. LXXXV, [1 blank], 121, [3] pp. Full description

€ 500

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

Pioneering work on Indian languages and society by an "unjustly forgotten" Indologist

VESDIN (VEZDIN), Filip (PAULINUS A SANCTO BARTHOLOMAEO). Viaggio alle Indie Orientali umiliato alla Santita di N. S. Papa Pio Sesto pontefice massimo ...
Rome, Antonio Fulgoni, 1796. 4to. With 12 engraved illustration plates (6 with 2 illustrations each to make 18 in total), engraved roundel portraits of Pope Pius VI (on the title-page) and the author (above the opening of the main text) and some small woodcut illustrations of "Indian hieroglyphs". Set in roman and italic types with occasional words in Greek, Arabic, East Syriac, Devanagari and more extensive texts in Malayalam, plus a Malabar song with a double staff made with built-up round-head music notes. 19th-century maroon half sheepskin. XX, 404 pp. Full description

€ 4,500

Arabic Printing & Calligraphy Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka Language & Linguistics Literature

Christian missionaries in India, with a map and illustrations of the Hindu gods

VEYSSIÈRE DE LA CROZE, Mathurin. Histoire du christianisme des Indes.
The Hague, the Vaillant brothers (Isaac and Paul II?) & Nicolas Prevost, 1724. 8vo. With an engraved frontispiece, the title-page in red and black with an engraved vignette, 1 folding engraved map and 3 engraved illustration plates. Contemporary calf. [16], 570, [54] pp. Full description

€ 1,800

Church History & Missions India & Sri Lanka

Unique manifest and price lists of colonial wares sold and brought in by the VOC in 1721, 1788 and 1853

[VOC - COLONIAL TRADE]. [Drop-title:] Generale carga, ofte lading van twee- en-twintig Oost-Indische retour scheepen; te weeten, Valkenisse, Steenhoven; ... van Batavia; ... van Ceylon, voor de Kamer Amsterdam, ... Delft; ... Rotterdam; ... Hoorn en Enkhuyzen, ... zynde de Bataviase schepen, op den eersten December 1720 vertrokken, en die van Ceylon op den 15 November 1720, en alle behouden in de havenen dezer landen gearriveert.
Amsterdam, Jacobus van Egmond, [1721.]. 1 leaf (21 x 8 cm). Text printed on both sides, each in a border built up from typographic ornaments.
With:
(2) Prys-courant. Van de koopmanschappen, verkogt door de bewindhebberen van de generale Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, in de respectieve kameren, en ten dage als volgt: ...
Amsterdam, Nicolaas Byl, 25 May 1781. 1 leaf (20.5 x 8 cm). Text printed on one side.
(3) Prys-courant der ruwe suikers.
Amsterdam, printed for A.E. de Wit & sons, 1853. 1 leaf (17.5 x 8 cm). Text printed on one side. Full description

€ 3,850

Broadsides & Pamphlets Ceylon Economic History & Trade Indonesia / Dutch East Indies VOC

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