Forum Rare Books

First complete edition of Cosmas's Christiana topographia describing his travels
in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf

MONTFAUCON, Bernard de (editor). Collectio nova patrum et scriptorum Graecorum, Eusebii Caesariensis, Athanasii, & Cosmae Aegyptii.
Paris, Claudius Rigaud, 1707. 2 volumes. Folio. With 4 engraved plates, and 3 woodcut illustrations in the text. Each volume with an engraved headpiece, the first incorporating the coat of arms of Pope Clement XI, and the second that of Jean-Paul Bignon. Contemporary calf, richly gold-tooled spine and binding edges. [14], XL, [1], [1 blank], 732, [26], [2 blank]; [16], LXVIII, 112, [2], I-XXIV, 113-593, [26], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 25,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Church History & Missions Classical Antiquity India & Sri Lanka Iran / Persia North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East Travel & Voyages Southern Asia

Ship's journal from Seychelles and Madagascar,
with numerous maps and earlier illustrated anatomical lecture notes

[MANUSCRIPT - SHIP'S JOURNAL]. MORSE, Edward George. A journal of remarks and observations as kept by E. G. M. . ..
[mostly on board the barque Sarah of London], April 1831-14 March 1833 (with additions to 1835). with an engraved view as frontispiece, 15 full-page, 1 nearly full-page and 1 smaller manuscript maps and coastal profiles, plus a small engraved view ("Tomb of Napoleon") mounted on 1 page.
Including: MORSE, Edward George. Lecture Book [notes on anatomical lectures by Joseph Constantine Carpue].
[London], November-December 1828. with a matching pair of engravings of a scull on and facing the title-page, and 27 pencil and/or ink anatomical drawings (including 2 full-page), some also with red. 4to (19.5×16.5 cm). Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [191] ll. Including paste-downs and about 55 blanks. Full description

€ 35,000

Australia Logbooks Medicine Southeast Asia Southern Africa Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Australia Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Southeast Asia West Africa

First Dutch edition of Niebuhr's detailed and extensively illustrated description of his travels
in Arabia and surrounding regions

NIEBUHR, Carsten. Reize naar Arabië en andere omliggende landen.
Amsterdam, S.J. Baalde; Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven & Comp. (vol. 1) and Bartholomeus Wild (vol. 2) (colophons: printed in Utrecht by Johan Joseph Besseling), 1776-1780. 2 volumes. 4to (27.5 x 22 cm). With 2 engraved title-pages, each with the same vignette, 35 maps and plans (9 folding and the large map of Yemen coloured by hand in red and green outlines), 21 views (12 folding) and 69 other illustrations (19 folding) of people, sculptures and examples of ancient script, engraved by C. Philips, Th. and C.H. Koning, C.J. de Huyser, C.F. Fritsch, C. Brouwer and others. Half calf, sprinkled paper sides, gold-tooled spine with a red title label with gold lettering. VIII (I and III blank), [6], 484, [2]; [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [12], 455, [1] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Arabian Peninsula & Gulf States Iran / Persia North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Asia Travel & Voyages Middle East

Probably the first manual for the use of chronometers at sea

OWEN, William Fitzwilliam (ed.) & Richard OWEN. Tables of latitudes, and longitudes by chronometer, of places in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans; principally of the west and east coast of Africa, the coasts of Arabia, Madagascar. &c. resulting from the observations of H.M.S. Leven and Barracouta, in the years 1820 to 1826 inclusive, ... To which is prefixed an essay on the management and use of chronometers ...
London, George Duckworth and William Ireland, 1827. 4to. Contemporary blue boards for the Danish Navy Library, later backed with cloth. [2], 33, [3], 16, [36], 8 pp Full description

€ 2,500

Instruments & Microscopy Naval History Navigation

One of the earliest sources on the Congo and central Africa, complete with all plates and maps

PIGAFETTA, Filippo and Duarte LOPEZ. Relatione del reame di Congo et delle circonvicine contrade tratta dalli scritti & ragionamenti di Odoardo Lopez.
Rome, Bartolomeo Grassi, [1591]. 4to. With an integral engraved architectural title-page (with the coat of arms of the dedicatee Antonio Migliore, Bishop of San Marco), large folding engraved general map of Africa (64×44 cm), large folding engraved map of the Congo (43.5×51.5 cm) and 8 numbered folding engraved plates of plants, animals and inhabitants of the country, by Natalis Bonifazio. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [8], 82, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description

€ 60,000

Anthropology & Ethnography Central Africa Charts & Maps City Plans, Topography & Views Early Printing - 16th century Fishes Travel & Voyages Africa

Portuguese classic of practical navigation, with 36 maps and nautical charts

PIMENTEL, Manuel. Arte de navegar, em que se ensinão as regras praticas, e os modos de cartear, e de graduar a Balestilha por via de numeros, e muitos problemas uteis aì navegação, e roteiro das viagens, e costas maritimas de Guineì, Angola, Brazil, Indias, e Ilhas Occidentaes, e Orientaes ...
Lisbon, Miguel Manescal da Costa, 1762. Folio (30 x 20.5 cm). With 21 engraved plates (1 folding), 1 nearly full-page engraving of a compass rose and about 10 woodcut diagrams in the text. Contemporary or near contemporary tanned sheepskin, richly gold-tooled spine, new endpapers. [12], 603, [1] pp. Full description

€ 5,000

Brazil Charts & Maps Latin America Navigation South America Southeast Asia West Indies

Augmented Dutch edition of Pocockes celebrated description of the Near and Middle East,
with 205 engraved plates

POCOCKE, Richard. Beschryving van het Oosten, en van eenige andere landen, ...
Utrecht, Gijsbert Tieme and Abraham van Paddenburg; Rotterdam, Jacobus Bosch and Reinier Arrenberg; Amsterdam, Martinus de Bruyn, 1776-1786. 3 volumes (in 6 parts) bound as 6. 4to. With 205 engraved folding plates (irregularly numbered I-CIII), including maps, plans, views and other illustrations, depicting temples, antiquities, plants, animals, etc. Contemporary half calf. XXXVI, 219, [1 blank], [11], 224-491, [1 blank]; [12], 262, [2 blank], VIII, [3], 268-376, 397-519, [1 blank]; VIII, 262, [2 blank], VIII, [3], 268-403, [1 blank]; [4], 115, [1], 124 pp. Full description

€ 15,000

Balkan & Greece Charts & Maps Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East

Important survey of ancient Egyptian and Nubian sites now submerged, with a very large and detailed map: a fine copy, partly unopened

PROKESCH, Anton, Ritter von Osten. Das Land zwischen den Katarakten des Nil. Mit einer Karte, ...
Vienna, Carl Gerold, 1831. 12mo (the book) and 17.5 x 25 cm (the folder with the folded map). With a separate large folding lithographed map (98 x 69 cm; image area 93 x 64 cm) assembled from 2 sheets, with the cultivated areas along the river hand-coloured in green as published, also showing 17 floor plans of temples and a plan of a Roman wall. The book in the publishers original light green paper wrappers and the map in a matching green paper folder. [8], 181, [3 blank] pp. plus folding table and separate map. Full description

€ 3,750

Archaeology Charts & Maps North Africa & Egypt

A kind Muslim, an English mummy snatcher and John Smith before Pocahontas

[PURCHAS, Samuel], John SANDERSON, Henry TIMBERLAKE and others. Seer gedenckwaerdige vojagien, van Johan Sanderson, Hendrick Timberly, en Capt. Johan Smith, door Europa, Asia en America. ...
Amsterdam, Joachim van Dyck, 1678. 4to. With engraved title-page, letterpress title-page with a woodcut floral ornament, 4 folding engraved illustration plates (including 1 with 4 small views). 18th-century half vellum. [12], 158 pp. including integral frontispiece. Full description

€ 4,500

Eastern Mediterranean & Cyprus North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Europe Travel & Voyages Middle East Turkey & Ottoman Empire

Fantastic (partly true?) adventures in Ottoman Africa, by an English merchant captured by Barbary pirates in 1648

ROBERTS, A. The adventures of (Mr T. S.) an English merchant, taken prisoner by the Turks of Argiers, and carried into the inland countries of Africa.
London, Moses Pitt [printed by William Wilson?], 1670. Small 8vo. Blind- and gold-tooled calf (ca. 1800). [8], "252" [= 254], [2] pp. Full description

€ 9,500

Mutiny, Piracy & Shipwrecks North Africa & Egypt Travel & Voyages Africa Travel & Voyages Middle East Turkey & Ottoman Empire

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