Categories
Shopping cart (0 items € 0)
Advanced search

Cartography & Exploration / Middle East & Islamic World

With attractive maps of the Holy Land

ADRICHEM, Christiaan van. Theatrum Terrae Sanctae et biblicarum historiarum cum tabulis geographicis aere expressis.
[Cologne, Officina Birckmannica, for Hermann Mylius, 1628]. Folio. With engraved allegorical title-page, numerous decorated woodcut initial letters and tailpieces, 11 maps of Israel and 1 map of Jerusalem (8 folding and 4 double-page). Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine with red morocco title-label, blind-tooled sides, gilt binding edges. [12], 286, [30] pp. Full description
€ 10,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first European to enter the Gulf: the final edition of Albuquerque's works

ALBUQUERQUE, Alfonso de. Commentarios do grande Afonso Dalboquerque capitao geral que foi das Indias orientaes em tempo do muito poderoso rey D. Manuel o primeiro deste nome.
Lisbon, Regia officina typografica, 1774. 4 volumes. Small 8vo. With a woodcut of Albuquerques coat of arms on all four title-pages, engraved portrait, an engraved illustration above the dedication, large engraved folding map and woodcut illustration in text. The map reaches from Egypt and Madagascar in the west to the Philippines and New Guinea in the east, including the Arabian Peninsula, the south of China, the east coast of Africa and most of the East Indies. Contemporary Portuguese mottled sheepskin with gold-tooled spines with red title labels, blue sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers. [6], XXX, [14], 343, [1]; [12], 285, [1], [2 blank]; [12], 289, [1], [2 blank]; [12], 256 pp. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Abu Dhabi's Oil industry: the Israeli perspective

[MAP - ARABIAN PENINSULA OIL RESOURCES]. Neft ba-mizrah ha-tikhon. Zikaynot, shadot, tzinorot, batei zikuk. [= Oil in the Middle East. Concessions, oilfields, pipelines, refineries].
Tel Aviv, Israel Defence Forces, General Staff, [1957]. 56 x 82.5 cm. Chromolithographic map of the Arabian Peninsula, from Turkey in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south, and covering Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, North and South Yemen. Scale 1:5,000,000. Scale and key in Hebrew inset to top-right, inset explanatory panels in Hebrew and English, compass rose in Saudi Arabia. Folded. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Large folding road map of Saudi Arabia

[ARAMCO]. Saudi Arabian road map.
Dammam, Al-Mutawa press company, 1973. Large folding map (60 × 90.5 cm), printed in light orange with darker purple, depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its main roads. With on the right the title in both Arabic and English and a table with the distances from one city to another. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Surviving traffic in Saudi Arabia, a large folding map

ARAMCO. Saudi Arabian road map.
Dammam, printed by the Al-Mutawa Press for the Arabian American Oil Company, 1973. Large folding map (60 x 90.5 cm), printed in colour, depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its main roads. With on the right the title in both Arabic and English and a table with the distances from one city to another. Printed on two sides, one side with the map in English and the other in Arabic. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Surviving traffic in Saudi Arabia, a large folding map

ARAMCO. Saudi Arabian road map.
Dammam, printed by the Al-Mutawa Press for the Arabian American Oil Company, 1975. Large folding map (60 x 90.5 cm), printed in colour, depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its main roads. With on the right the title in both Arabic and English and a table with the distances from one city to another. Printed on two sides, one side with the map in English and the other in Arabic. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A French view on the Arabs in a Dutch translation

ARVIEUX, Laurent d'. Reis naar de legerplaats van den Grooten Emir, en beschrijving van de zeeden en gewoonten der woestijn-bewoonende Arabieren ... Tweede druk.
Dordrecht, A. Blussé & Zoon, 1802. 8vo. With 3 full-page engraved plates and 1 engraved illustration in text. Contemporary gold-tooled half calf, shell-marbled sides. [4], XL, 384, [16] pp. Full description
€ 1,350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Asia and the Middle East in 1952, with many borders on the Arabian Peninsula still undefined

[MAP – ASIA – MIDDLE EAST]. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. Southwest Asia, India, Pakistan, and Northeast Africa.
Washington, DC, National Geographic Society, 1952. Colour printed map, 68.5 x 95 cm. Scale 1:7,5000,000. With an inset map of "the Moslem World; percentage of Moslems in total population". Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Large coloured map of the Middle East, including roads and oil pipe lines

BARTHOLOMEW, John. Middle East with boundaries, roads and railways.
Edinburgh, John Bartholomew & Son, 1962. 8vo. Large folding map (77 x 101 cm) on a scale of 1:4,000,000, linen backed. With relief shown by contours, hachures and gradient tints and depths shown by soundings. Folded, with title-wrapper. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A Franciscan discovering the Holy Land. From the library of King Louis-Philippe

[BEAUGRAND, Felix]. Relation fidele du voyage de la Terre Sainte dans laquelle se voit tout ce qu' il y a de remarquable, tant par mer que par terre, depuis le départ de Marseille jusqu' au retour de ce saint voyage.
Paris, Gabriel Valleyre, 1760. 8vo. With a small woodcut vignette on title, several woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary mottled calf, gold-tooled spine, with yellow morocco title label, gold-tooled binding edges, red edges. [4], 248, [10] pp. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Belon's account of his extensive travels in the Levant, with 44 woodcut illustrations

BELON, Pierre. Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges.
Paris, Guillaume Cavellat (colophon: printed by Benoist Prévost for Gilles Corozet, Guillaume Cavellat), 1555. 3 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With title in woodcut border with Cavellet's device and initials at the foot, each part-title with Cavellet's woodcut device, 1 folding woodcut map (31.5 x 35 cm) showing Mount Sinai, 44 woodcuts in the text (including a portrait of the author by Geoffroy Tory), and numerous fine decorated initials. Overlapping vellum (ca. 1600?). [12], 212, [1] ll. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare and extensive work on Algeria, spectacularly illustrated with 133 large plates, some in colour

BERBRUGGER, Louis Adrien. Algerie historique, pittoresque et monumentale, ou Recueil de vues, costumes et portraits faits d'après nature dans les provinces d'Alger, Bone, Constantine et Oran.
Paris, Delahaye (part-titles: printed by Dondey-Dupré), 1843. 5 parts in 3 volumes. Royal 1mo (57 x 42.5 cm). With chromo-lithographed general title-page, tinted lithographed frontispiece, 2 lithographed maps hand-coloured in outline, and 133 lithographed plates (image size up to 44.5 x 30.5 cm, nearly all non-botanical ones tinted and one with 2 chromolithographed and hand-coloured costume prints) by and after artists including Charles Bour, Eugène Flandin, Félix Emmanuel Henri Philippoteaux and Denis Auguste Marie Raffet. Also with lithographed views (and a few lithographed maps) printed in the tail margins at the ends of many chapters, and 45 white-on-black wood-engravings of coins (each with obverse and reverse) in the text. The 72 botanical illustrations on the last 10 lithographed plates are coloured by hand and highlighted with gum arabic. The non-botanical plates have the publisher's embossed stamp in the foot margin. Contemporary, uniform dark green half goatskin morocco with a gold-tooled spine. XIV, [3], [1 blank], 80; [3], [1 blank], 68; [3], [1 blank], 42; [3], [1 blank], 21, [1 blank], 18, 16, [1], [1 blank] pp. including the chromolithographed title-page. Full description
€ 28,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

With the 6 large Daniel Stoopendaal maps and the series of 212 prints by Picard and others

[BIBLE - DUTCH - KEUR]. Biblia, dat is De gantsche H. Schrifture vervattende alle de canonijcke boecken des Ouden en des Nieuwen Testaments.
Dordrecht, Jacob and Pieter Keur; Amsterdam, Pieter Rotterdam and Pieter Rotterdam the younger (colophon: printed by Jacob and Pieter Keur, Dordrecht), 1714 (New Testament without Pieter Rotterdam the younger, 1713). 3 parts in 2 volumes. Large folio (42.5×27.5 cm). With engraved general title-page, series of 6 engraved double-page folding maps by Daniël Stoopendaal (his larger set), a complete set of 184 full-page and 28 double-page engraved illustration plates by various artists, including A. de Blois, J. van Vianen and J. Mulder, after G. Hoet, B. Picart, A. Houbraken and others. Gold-tooled sprinkled calf (1738?). [20], 302; [2], 134, [12], 164, [2], 66 ll. Full description
€ 7,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important travelogue on Persia, with 15 plates and 2 maps

BODE, Clement Augustus de. Travels in Luristan and Arabistan.
Including: BODE, Clement Augustus de. Observations on the march of Timur ... and on the probable course pursued by Alexander the Great, on his expedition from Susa to Persepolis.
London, J. Madden and Co., 1845. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a wood-engraved illustration on the title-page to each volume, 15 plates, 2 folding engraved maps and 3 wood-engraved illustrations in text. The 15 plates (4 tinted lithographs and 11 wood engravings) consists of 2 frontispieces, a folding plate, a double-page plate and 11 single-page plates. Modern half calf, marbled (Period Binders, Bath, England). XX, 404; XII, 398, [1], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

3 little-known works by Italian scientist on astronomy, hydrostatics and navigation

BRUNETTI, Francesco Saverio. Trattenimenti scientifici su la sfera, geografia istorica, meteore, ed astronomia.
Rome, Bernabò and Lazzarini, 1754. With several woodcut illustrations in the text (including an armillary sphere), and an extra added folding engraved frontispiece.
With:
(2) BRUNETTI, Francesco Saverio. Trattenimenti scientifici su lindrografia, nautica, blasone, statica, meccanica, architectura, pirotecnia, e suono.
Roma, Bernabò and Lazzarini, 1755. With several woodcut illustrations in the text, and an extra added frontispiece (facsimile of an engraving?).
(3) BRUNETTI, Francesco Saverio. Macchina semplicissima per cui lacqua da se stessa salice ad una data altezza.
Rome, Bernabò and Lazzarini, 1747. With folding engraved plate as frontispiece. 3 works (the first in 2 parts) in 1 volume. 4to. Contemporary sheepskin parchment. [24], 180, 112; [8], 173, [3 blank]; 12 pp. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Magnificent work containing more than 200 highly detailed illustrations of the Levant, Middle East and Asia

BRUYN, Cornelis de. Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn, door de vermaardste deelen van Klein Asia, de eylanden Scio, Rhodus, Cyprus, Metelino, Stanchio, &c. Mitsgaders de voornaamste steden van Aegypten, Syrien en Palestina.
Delft, Hendrik van Krooneveld, 1698. Large folio (ca. 38.5 x 25 cm). With an engraved frontispiece by J. Mulder, a full-page engraved portrait of the author by G. Valck, and ca. 215 numbered illustrations on 101 full-page and double-page plates (including 17 very large double-page folding plates, 6 illustrations lettered 1, 22A, 22B, 22C, A (again) and B, and 24 smaller illustrations in the text - of which 4 not part of the numbered sequence). Some of the plates are captioned, there does not seem to have been a systematic approach in adding the captions - all plates are as issued and as they appear in other copies. These plates mainly depict views and cityscapes. Contemporary mottled calf. [22], 397, [9] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Large paper copy of the beautifully illustrated first edition of De Bruyn’s travels to the Levant

BRUYN (LE BRUN), Cornelis de. Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn, door de vermaardste deelen van Klein Asia, de eylanden Scio, Rhodus, Cyprus, Metelino, Stanchio, &c. Mitsgaders de voornaamste steden van Aegypten, Syrien en Palestina.
Delft, printed by Hendrik van Kroonevelt [engravings printed by Petrus Schenk and Gerard Valck?], 1698. Large folio (39.5x26 cm). With engraved frontispiece, engraved author's portrait, large engraved folding map of the Mediterranean Sea, 103 engraved plates (many double-page and folding) and 18 engravings in text. 18th-century, gold-tooled, tanned goatskin; rebacked, with original backstrip laid down and modern endpapers. [20], 398, [8] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a sumptuous account of a voyage to Russia, Persia and the East Indies,
with large folding views of Moscow and Isfahan (194x42 cm)

BRUYN (LE BRUN), Cornelis de. Reizen over Moskovie, door Persie en Indie: verrykt met driehondert konstplaten, vertoonende de beroemste lantschappen en steden, ook de byzondere dragten, beesten, gewassen en platen, die daer gevonden worden ...
Amsterdam, Willem and David Goeree for the author, 1711. Folio (40x25.5 cm). With engraved frontispiece by Bernard Picart, engraved author's portrait, 2 folding engraved maps, 109 engraved plates (13 folding, 55 double-page, 41 full-page) and 36 engraved illustrations in text. Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. [8], 472, [12] pp. Full description
€ 9,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First printed record of Abu Dhabi and Dubai: the first Latin edition

DE BRY, Theodor; Johann Israel DE BRY and Joris VAN SPILBERGEN. Indiae Orientalis pars septima [...].Including: Icones, hoc est verae variorum populorum et regum, ceremoniarum item, superstitiosorum rituum et rerum aliarum, ...
Frankfurt, Wolfgang Richter, 1606. Folio (32.5 x 20 cm). With the letterpress title in an engraved architectural border, a separate letterpress title-page for the Icones, an engraved coat of arms on the dedication leaf, 20 engravings in text and 2 double-page engraved plates. 20th-century green half morocco. [4], 126, [2 blank] pp.; 26 ll. Full description
€ 28,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Biblical travels in the form of a travel book

BÜNTING, Heinrich and Matthias HASAERT. Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae. Dat is: het reysboek der Heyligher Schrift.
Including:     BÜNTING, Heinrich. Een besonder tractaet ende onderwijsinghe van de munte ende ghewichtre der Heyligher Schrifturen... [BÜNTING, Heinrich]. Itinerarium Novi Testamenti. Dat is: een reysboeck, over het Nieuwe Testament. Het tweede deel...BÜNTING, Heinrich. Harmonia evangelistarum, dat is: eene seer schoone ende eendrachtige over-een-stemminge der heyliger vier evangelisten...Amsterdam, Hendrik Laurentsz., 1635. 4 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 5 woodcut and 2 engraved folding maps. Contemporary vellum, modern endpapers. [16], 355, [9]; [2], 36; [4], 163, [3]; 24 pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The classic book of Biblical travels: the first edition to be accompanied
by the complementary Lower Saxon chronicle in contemporary, richly blind-tooled Saxon pigskin

BÜNTING, Heinrich and Matthias HASAERT. Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, das ist Ein Reisebuch uber die gantze Heilige Schrifft ...
Including:
[BÜNTING, Heinrich]. Itinerarium Novi Testamenti. Das ist: Ein Reisebuch over das Newe Testament.
BÜNTING, Heinrich. De monetis et mensuris sacrae scripturae. Dass ist: Ein eigentliche ausrechnung und beschreibung aller Müntz und Masse in heiliger Schrift. ...
Magdeburg, Paul Donat for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1585. With 3 title-pages, 7 double-page and 2 full-page woodcut maps
With: (2) BÜNTING, Heinrich. Braunschweigische und Luneburgische Chronica.
Including:
Das ander Theil Braunschweigischen Chronica, gehet auff das Land Lüneburg
Das dritte Theil, der Braunschweigischen und Lüneburgischen Chronica, ...
Das vierte Theil dieses Buches, gehet insonderheit auff das Fürstenthumb Grubenhagen, füret ... den geburts Stam des fürstlichen Hauses Braunschweig und Lüneburg.
Magdeburg, Paul Donat for Ambrosius Kirchner, 1584-1585. General title-page in red and black with the woodcut coat of arms of Julius of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, further with numerous finely detailed woodcut illustrations
2 works in 3 and 4 volumes, bound as 1. Folio. Contemporary, richly blind-tooled pigskin, possibly by Nikolaus Müller in Wittenberg. With a matching pair of panel stamps in the central fields: portraits of Martin Luther (front board, 83 x 44 mm) and Phillip Melanchthon (back board, 81 x 45 mm), each with the date 1556 and text below. Ad 1: [16], “141” [= 242], [18]; [6], 110, [9] [3 blank]; [6], “34” [= 33], [1 blank] pp.; ad 2: [14], “150” [= 151], [1 blank]; “46” [= 47]. [1 blank]; [1], 47-82, [1 blank]; [1], “82”-“113” [= 83-109] ll. Full description
€ 27,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Stunning lithographic illustrations and a detailed route map of a voyage
through Persia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and India

BURNES, Alexander. Voyages de l'embouchure de l'Indus a Lahor, Caboul, Balkh et a Boukhara; et retour par la Perse, pendant les années 1831, 1832 et 1833 ... Atlas.
Paris, Arthus Bertrand (colophon on back wrapper: Imprimerie et Fonderie de Fain), [1835]. 3 text volumes and 1 atlas volume. 8vo. With 11 numbered lithographed plates (1 folding) showing costumes of the regions, medals and engraved stones, topographic views, archaeological sites, etc., and a large folding engraved map with the routes hand-coloured in red and orange. Contemporary gold-tooled half sheepskin (text volumes), original publisher's letterpress-printed brown paper wrappers (atlas volume). [3], [1 blank] pp. plus plates. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Geographical description/atlas of the old world, including the Middle East.
With 33 maps and bound in well-preserved, gold-tooled contemporary calf

CELLARIUS, Christoph. Notitia orbis antiqui, sive geographia plenior, ab ortu rerumpublicarum ad constantinorum tempora orbis terrarium faciem declarans. ... et novis tabulis geographicis ... illustravit.
(Volume 1:) Cambridge, John Owen, 1703; (volume 2:) Amsterdam, Caspar Fritsch, 1706. 2 volumes. 4to. With engraved author's portrait, 33 engraved double-page maps and 1 engraved double-page plate. Contemporary calf, richly gold tooled spines and binding edges, double gilt fillets on sides. [16], 862, [38]; [12], 544; 166, [38] pp. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of a rare work about the Orient and the crusades

CENTENO, Amaro. Historia de cosas del oriente primera y segunda parte...
Cordoba, Diego Galván, 1595. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut coat of arms on the title-page and the divisional title-page for part 2, an elaborate Jesuit woodcut IHS vignette on the verso of the last leaf above the colophon and woodcut initials throughout, with a few typographical or woodcut tail-pieces, al text is set within a simple woodcut frame. Later tree marbled sheepskin. [8], 138, [4] ll. Full description
€ 28,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

French merchant travels through Persia and becomes personal jeweller to the Shah

CHARDIN, Jean. Voyages de mr. le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient.
Amsterdam, J. L. de Lorme, 1711. 10 volumes. 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece portrait of Johannes Chardin, 1 engraved map, 79 engraved folding plates and 6 letterpress folding tables. Contemporary half morocco, gold-tooled spine. [24], 254; 334; 285, [1 blank]; 280; 312; 328; 448; 255, [1 blank]; 308; 220, [82] pp. Full description
€ 4,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare and little known collection of Italian Renaissance merchant voyages to India

CIGNANO, Ludovico. Quieta solitudine di varii ragionamenti, discorsi, et concetti, ove si narra quattro navigationi ...
Bologna, Alessandro Benacci, 1587. Small 4to. With the woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee Giovanni Luigi Scappi, elaborately helmed, crested and mantled, on the title-page, a woodcut tailpiece (plus 1 repeat), woodcut decorated initials (at least 4 series), decorations built up from cast typographic ornaments.
Goatskin morocco (ca. 1870/80?), richly gold-tooled spine and turn-ins, signed in foot of front turn-in by the Paris bookbinders "DARLAUD FRÈRES", gold fillets on sides and board edges, combed curl-marbled endpapers, edges gilt over marbling, headbands worked in white and beige, and a yellow, red and green ribbon marker. 166 pp. Full description
€ 45,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Hitherto considered unobtainable: the spectacular, complete series of more than 200 photographs
of the Middle East and Spain by Louis De Clercq, uniformly bound

CLERCQ, Louis De. Voyage en Orient - Voyage en Espagne, 1859-1860
[Paris, France], J. Blondeau et Antonin, 1860. 6 volumes bound in 5 albums. Oblong 1mo (ca. 45 x 60 cm). With 222 photographs, albumen prints from waxed paper negative, including 23 panoramas, all mounted on cardboard, each plate with a lithographed number and caption. Album I contains photos of cities, monuments, and other picturesque views of Syria (49 prints including 11 panoramas); II: castles from the time of the Crusaders in Syria (37 prints including 5 panoramas); III: views of Jerusalem and holy places in Palestine (30 prints including 1 panorama); IV (bound together with III): the stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem (14 prints); V: monuments and picturesque sites in Egypt (41 prints including 1 panorama); VI: cities, monuments, and other picturesque views in Spain (51 prints including 5 panoramas). The sizes of the albumen prints vary from ca. 20 x 27 cm. to ca. 112 x 20 cm.

Uniform, original red leather-grained cloth with the title and name of the author lettered in gold on the front board. Full description
€ 850,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

An account of the former King of Portugal’s visit to Morocco, the first book printed in Tangiers

COLAÇO, José Daniel. Viagem de Sua Magestade El Rei o Senhor Dom Fernando a Marrocos, seguido da descripção da entrega da Grão Cruz da Torre e Espada ao Sultão Sid Mohammed.
Tangiers, Abrines, 1882. 8vo. Modern maroon half morocco, preserving the original publisher's printed wrappers. VI, 122, [1 blank], [2], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Fascinating and thrilling account of the land survey work in Palestine in the 1870s.

CONDER, Claude Reignier. Tent work in Palestine. A record of discovery and adventure.
London, Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington Street, 1879, 2 vols., Many half- and some full-page Illustrations and maps throughout. Contemporary green morocco, with gold-tooling to boards and spine. XXVI, 381, [1]; VII, 352 pp. Full description
€ 500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Major source of information on the Muslim world in the 17th century

DAPPER, Olfert. Naukeurige beschryving van Asie: behelsende de gewesten van Mesopotamie, Babylonie, Assyrie, Anatolie, of Klein Asie: beneffens eene volkome beschrijving van gantsch gelukkigh, woest, en petreesch of steenigh Arabie. Vertoont in een bondigh ontwerp van 's lands benamingen, bepalingen, . . . inzonderheit die van d'oude Arabieren, Mahomet en Mahometanen.
Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs, 1680. Folio. With engraved frontispiece, 3 double-page maps (of Basra and surroundings, Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula), 12 double-page or folding views (partly drawn by Charles Vasteau). Near contemporary blind-stamped vellum. [8], 357, [3], 324, [4] pp. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Eyewitness account of a 1570 diplomatic mission to the Ottoman court,
with 28 fine original colour drawings and samples of Turkish decorated paper

[DIPLOMATIC MISSION]. BRAECKLE, Jacques de. Memoires du voiage de Constantinople de Jacques de Bracle seigneur de Bassecourt.
[Various places, [1570 or very soon after]. 4to (main text & decorated paper) & 8vo (transcription & drawings) (21.5 x 14.5 cm). Manuscript in French, written in brown ink on paper in a Flemish bastarda gothic hand, with about 26 lines per page. With 8 contemporary half-sheet specimens of Turkish decorated "silhouette" paper (folded to make 16 leaves in 2 quires), a series of 28 drawings in brown ink and coloured gouaches, highlighted in gold (mostly costume figures, some showing the Sultan and other leading figures, others showing anonymous types from various ethnic and religious groups), plus a ca. 1800, transcript of the complete text and biography of the author (with his arms in colour). Modern sheepskin parchment. [2 blank], [34]; [5 blank], [62 incl. a few blank], [1 blank] pp. plus 8 double leaves of decorated paper and [36], [4 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. of 18th-century additions. Full description
€ 180,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Life and customs in the Ottoman Empire, described by a Christian former slave

DJURDJEVIC, Bartol (Bartholomeus GEORGIEVITZ) Voiage de la saincte cite de Hierusalem. Jointe la description des citez, villes, ports, lieux, & autres passages. Ensemble les ceremonies des Turcs ...
Liège, printed by Leonard Streel for Lambert de la Coste, 1600. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. 18th-century calf, gold-tooled spine. [32], [32] lvs. Full description
€ 17,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Afghanistan and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary and India, with 14 hand-coloured plates, in original wrappers

ELPHINSTONE, Mountstuart. Tableau du royaume de Caboul, et de ses dépendances, dans la Perse, la Tartarie et l'Inde, offrant les moeurs, usages et costumes de cet empire, ... traduit et abrégé de l'anglais, par M. Breton.
Paris, Nepveu, 1817. 3 volumes. 18mo. With 14 engraved plates depicting various costumes, lords on horseback, etc., all beautifully coloured by hand. Original publisher's printed wrappers, each volume with wood engraved illustrations on front, back and spine. Preserved in a modern gold-tooled green morocco box. XLIV, 189 [3]; [4], 222, [2]; [4], 223 [1] pp. Full description
€ 4,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

1565/66 pilgrimage to the Middle East, with author's portrait, coat of arms and 6 illustration plates

FÜRER VON HAIMENDORF, Christoph. Itinerarium Aegypti, Arabiae, Palaestinae, Syriae, aliarumque regionum orientalium.
Nuremberg, Abraham Wagenmann, 1621 (colophon: Nuremberg, printed by Abraham Wagenmann, 1620). Small 4to. With finely engraved full-page portrait of the author by Peter Isselberg, full-page engraved Fürer von Haimendorf coat of arms, 6 folding engraved plates. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [16], 118, [114] pp. Full description
€ 12,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Illustrated travel account of the "sights" and sacred places in the Holy Land

GOUJON, Jacques. Histoire et voyage de la Terre-Sainte, où tout ce qu'il y a de plus remarquable dans les saints lieux, est tres exactement descrit.
Lyon, Pierre Compagnon & Robert Taillandier, 1671. 4to. With a woodcut vignette on the title-page and 17 folding engraved plates showing maps, views, and plans of regions, mountains and buildings in the Holy Land, further with woodcut decorated initials, and woodcut head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf. [1], [1 blank], [10], 358, [9], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 11,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A 1780s voyage through Turkey via Aleppo to Basra and via Muscat back to Europe

GRIFFITHS, John. Neue Reise in Arabien, die europäische und asiatische Türkey. Nach dem Englischen für Deutsche bearbeitet von K.L.M. Müller.
Leipzig, J.C. Hinrichs, 1814. 2 volumes bound as 1. 8vo. With an engraved folding frontispiece view and 3 engraved maps (2 large folding), the view coloured, 1 map with the Ottoman-Persian border coloured in blue and red, and all three maps with the route coloured in red. Mid 19th-century boards covered with marbled paper, with the arms of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia in gold on the front board. [10], 125, [3 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 154 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Over forty plates of East Africa based on daguerrotypes

GULLAIN, Charles. Documents sur l'histoire, la geographie et le commerce de l'Afrique orientale.
Paris, Arthus Bertrand, [1856-1857]. 3 text volumes and 1 atlas volume. Text volumes: 8vo; atlas volume: folio. With 55 tinted plates. Contemporary leather-backed marbled boards. XXXI, [1], 628; XXIII, [1], 556; [4], 527, [1 blank] pp. Atlas volume: [4] pp. and 55 plates. Full description
€ 35,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important work on the natural history of Palastine

HASSELQUIST, Friedrich and Carl LINNAEUS. Reise nach Palästina in den Jahren von 1749 bis 1752. auf Befehl ihro Majestät der Königinn von Schweden herausgegeben vond Carl Linnäus aus em Schwedischen.
Rostock, Johann Christian Koppe, 1762 (colophon: Leipzig, Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf, 1761). 8vo. With woodcut tailpieces. Contemporary half vellum. [18], 606 pp. Full description
€ 1,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

With a folding map situating the Garden of Eden near Al Basrah, Iraq

HUET, Pierre Daniel. Trattato della situazione del Paradiso terrestre ... Tradotta dalla lingua Francese.
Venice, Giambatista Albrizzi, 1737. Small 8vo (15.5 x 10 cm). With an engraved frontispiece incorporating a map, the engraved arms of the dedicatee Marc'Antonio Morosini above the dedication, and a folding engraved map (22.5 x 19 cm). Contemporary sprinkled tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [48], 234, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

British military terrain map of the Persian Gulf, published in Calcutta

HUNTER, Frederic Fraser (editor); Sir Sidney Gerald BURRARD (director). Southern Asia series - Southern Persia sheet - Persia, Arabia and Turkey in Asia
[Dehradun, Survey of India Office], sold at the Map Record and Issue Office, Calcutta, 1912. 61.5 x 88 cm. Large photozincographed (heliozincographed) folding map on a scale of 1:2,000,000 in black, blue and red, with relief shown by contours, hachures and gradient tints. Folded. Full description
€ 15,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First substantial English translation of Ibn Batuta's travels through the Islamic world and beyond

IBN BATUTA and Samuel LEE (editor). The travels of Ibn Batuta; translated from the abridged Arabic manuscript copies, preserved in the public library of Cambridge. With notes, illustrative of the history, geography, botany, antiquities, &c. occurring throughout the work.
London, printed for the Oriental Translation Committee (colophon: by J.L. Cox). Large 4to (32 x 26). With various passages including the original Arabic text. Later half calf. "XVIII" [=XX], [2], 243, [1] pp. Full description
€ 17,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The Gallipoli Campaign, depicted in an extremely detailed map drawn in Cairo under the direction of Lawrence of Arabia

[INTELLIGENCE OFFICE - ARAB BUREAU - CAIRO]. Chanak.
Cairo, Survey Department Egypt, 1915 Colour-lithographed map (79 x 62.5 cm), printed in black, brown, red, blue and green. Mounted on contemporary cloth, with the key on the back (printed on or printed and pasted onto). Folded. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

British colour-printed aerial maps of Iraq for use in the Persian war

[MAPS - IRAQ]. [Reconnaissance maps of Iraq].
[UK Government], Survey Directorate HQ Tenth Army / Indian Field Survey Co., 1942 42 chromolithographed topographic maps of parts of Iraq, made from aerial photographs during World War II, on a scale of 1:100,000 and 1:253,440 (a quarter-inch to a mile). 68 x 50.5 cm & 60 x 47 cm. Full description
€ 6,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Historical narrative of a voyage to India and Persia written by a surgeon of the British Royal Navy

IVES, Edward. Reize naar Oost-Indië en Persië, en de daar omliggende landen. Ondernomen langs een' ongewoonen weg.
Amsterdam, De Compagnie, 1779. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With 2 engraved title-pages, 2 folding engraved maps, one of India, the other tracking Ives's journey from Basra to Latakia, and 9 engraved plates (including 1 large folding). Contemporary blind-tooled vellum. [16], 324; [1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], 379, [1] pp. Full description
€ 3,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A teenage sailor’s adventures in Arabia, Mumbai and elsewhere

JAMES, Silas. A narrative of a voyage to Arabia, India; &c; ...; with remarks on the genius and disposition of the natives of Arabia Felix; ...
London, printed by William Glindon, sold by the author, [1797]. 8vo. With a frontispiece portrait of the author engraved by William Newman. Modern dark brown calf, gold-tooled spine. “VI” [= VIII], 7, [1 blank], [1], 10-232 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important collection of voyages to America and Africa, together with a standard work on Constantinople

[JUSTEL, Henri]. Recueil de divers voyages faits en Afrique et en l'Amerique.
Paris, Louis Billaine, 1674. With 17 engraved plates: 5 maps (4 folding), 3 folding plans and 9 other illustrations.
With: (2) GRELOT, Guillaume-Joseph. Relation nouvelle d'un voyage de Constantinople.
Paris, Nicolas Belley, 1689 (colophon 1680). With engraved portrait of a saint on title-page, 13 engraved plates, 4 engravings in text and engraved coat of arms. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. 18th-century tan calf, gold-tooled spine. [16], 262, 35 [1 blank], 23 [1 blank], 49 [1 blank], [2], 81 [1 blank]; [12], 306, 1 [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Very rare Dutch picaresque novel, with the female protagonist getting caught by pirates
and ending up in the household of an Arabic slave trader

[KERSTEMAN, Petrus Lievens]. De vermakelyke avanturesse, of de dienstmaagd van fortuin. Vervattende hare zonderlinge levensgevallen, ontelbare wederwaardigheden en rampen; zeltzame ontmoetingen, en koddige vryagien; deszelfs driejarige dienst als lakye, gevangenneming op de Moorsche kusten, en hare slavernye in Asia by de Arabieren.
Amsterdam, Steven van Esveldt, 1754. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece. Contemporary mottled half calf, gold-tooled spine, later endpapers. [4], 360 pp Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Concise handbook for Western travellers visiting the Gulf States

KILNER, Peter and Jonathan WALLACE (editors). A guide for businessmen and visitors. The Gulf handbook 1978.
Bath and London, Trade and Travel Publications and MEED, 1978. 17.5 x 12 cm. With 8 sections of a map (2 full-page and 3 double-page) in colour of showing several parts of the Arabian peninsula, 8 full-page black-and-white photographic portraits of the Heads of State of the different Gulf States, 21 black-and-white maps and plans of these states and their largest cities, and numerous advertisements (partially in colour) throughout. Original illustrative printed boards, showing an Arab man with a gun in front of a large satellite dish and an advert for Arab Wings showing a plane in the sky on the back. XII, 576 pp. Full description
€ 350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Lively watercolour view of Tophane Quay in Istanbul with the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque

[ISTANBUL]. [KING, Helena Caroline or Adelaide Charlotte]. [Prominent Ottoman and entourage boarding boats before the Kilic Ali Pasha Mosque].
[Istanbul?, ca. 1830/50?]. Watercolour drawing on wove paper (29.5 x 45 cm) with highlights in shellac and a thin black border. Mounted on a larger sheet of paper in a passe-partout. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Travels through the Middle East, India and Europe, with 34 woodcut illustrations, including several trees

LA BOULLAYE LE GOUZ, Francois de. Les voyages et observations du sieur de la Boullaye-le-Gouz gentil-homme Angevin...
Paris, Francois Clousier, 1653. 4to. With a woodcut and an engraved author's portrait, 34 woodcut illustrations in text, including several full-page, and some woodcut initals, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine. [16], 540, [10], [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 18,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

French account of the Siege of Candia (Heraklion) in first edition with engraved fortification plan

[LA FEUILLADE, François Aubusson de]. Journal de l'expedition de Monsieur de la Feuillade, pour le secours de Candie. Par un volontaire.
Lyon, Jean Thioly, 1669. 12mo. With woodcut printer's device on title-page, some woodcut initials and head-and tailpieces and 1 engraved folding plan of the fortification of Candia (20 x 28.5 cm). Contemporary calf, gold-tooled spine and sprinkled edges. [8], 198, [2] pp. Full description
€ 4,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of an account of the Arabic interpreter who accompanied a Napoleonic spy on his mission throughout the Middle East

LAMARTINE, Alphonse de & Henri Bosch (editor). Récit du séjour de Fatalla Sayeghir chez les Arabes Errans du grand désert, manuscrit acquis et traduit en Français.
Brussels, Sociétés de Paris, Londres et Bruxelles, 1835. 8vo. With a small vignette of a harp with a star in the background on the title page. Browned paper wrappers, with a white label on the spine with "68" in brown ink. [1], [1 blank], [2], VII, [1 blank], 109, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Linschoten's nautical chart of the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and surroundings, engraved in 1596

LANGREN, H. F. van. Deliniantur in hac tabula, orae maritimae Abexiae, freti Mecani: al Maris Rubri-Arabiae ...
Engraved map of Arabia, India and surroundings in 2 sheets (38.5 x 53.5 cm as assembled), engraved for J. Huygen van Linschoten, Itinerario, 1596). Matted. Full description
€ 9,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A French voyage to the Levant

LA ROQUE, Jean de. Voyage de Syrie et du Mont-Liban.
Paris, André Cailleau, 1722. 2 volumes. 12mo. With 9 engraved plates (5 folding), including a folding map showing the course of the Orontes river; dedication with woodcut coat of arms of De Fleury. Contemporary sprinkled calf, gold-tooled spines with gilt-stamped crest of Henry Edward Bunbury. [12], 347, [1 blank]; [2], 321, [3] pp. Full description
€ 4,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Journal of a 1674/75 overland voyage through India, Iran, Iraq and Syria to Amsterdam

LEEUWENSON, Joannes (Pieter Arend LEUPE, ed. & intro.). Eene overlandreis uit Indië naar Nederland, in 1674-1675.
[Amsterdam, Frederik Muller, 1863]. 8vo. Offprint, retaining the original pagination and collation, of an article in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6 (1863). 20th-century stiff paper wrappers, with a printed label on the front. pp. [89], 90-142. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Wonderful account of the geography and development of Palestine and Syria during the Muslim rule

LE STRANGE, Guy. Palestine under the Moslems. A description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Translated from the work of the mediaeval Arab geographers.
Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1975. Illustrations, maps, plans (some fold-out) throughout. Original cloth binding. XXII, [2], 604 pp. Full description
€ 650
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Detailed observations of life in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt
and elsewhere in the Levant and Middle East ca. 1610

LITHGOW, William. Willem Lithgouws 19 jaarige lant-reyse, uyt Schotlant nae de vermaerde deelen des werelts Europa, Asia en Africa.
Amsterdam, Jacob Benjamin (colophon: printed by Christoffel Cunradus), 1653. 2 parts in 1 volume. 4to. With engraved frontispiece by Crispijn de Passe, 1 engraved plate and 6 engraved illustrations in the text. 19th-century half vellum. [8], 186, 98 pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Detailed observations of life in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt and elsewhere in the Levant and Middle East ca. 1610

LITHGOW, William. Nineteen years travels through the most eminent places in the habitable world.
London, for John Wright & Thomas Passinger, 1682. 8vo. With a folding woodcut frontispiece and 6 folding woodcut plates and 1 woodcut in the text. 19th-century dark brown sheepskin, sewn on 3 recessed cords, brown spine label, Stormont on shell marbled endpapers. [8], 481, [7] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The second voyage of Paul Lucas through the Levant

LUCAS, Paul. Voyage du sieur Paul Lucas fait par ordre du Roi dans la Grèce, L'Asie Mineure, La Macedoine et L'Afrique. Contenant la description de la Natolie, de la Caramanie, & de la Macedoine.
Amsterdam, aux dépens de la Compagnie, 1714. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With an engraved frontispiece and a title-page printed in red and black for each part, 9 folding engraved plates with pyramids, archeological findings, the Holy Grave, and inscriptions, 2 folding engraved maps of the Levant (engraved by B. Ruyter), and of Fioum, the Nile and surroundings in Egypt, and 8 full-page engraved plates. Contemporary half calf. [1], [1 blank], [28], 323, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], [8], 328 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Famous work on the Middle East, illustrated with very early photogravures of the Holy Land

LUYNES, Honoré d'Albert de. Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain. ... Oeuvre posthume publiée par ses petit-fils sous la direction de M. le Comte de Vogüé.
Paris, Arthus Bertrand (on back of half-title: printed by E. Martinet (vols. 1-2) and Arnous de Rivière (vol. 3)), [1874]. 3 volumes of text and 1 atlas of plates. Imperial 4to (35.2 x 26.5 cm). With 14 numbered lithographed plates in volume 3 (4 double-page chromolithographed maps, views and geological sections; 2 further geological plates and 8 plates showing archaeological specimens), 85 plates in the atlas volume (including 65 photogravures and double-page chromolithographed maps) and numerous wood-engravings in the text. Set in roman and italic types with occasional passages in Greek and especially Arabic. Text volumes in original publisher's letterpress-printed light blue wrappers, atlas in half cloth portfolio with the original publisher's letterpress-printed paper sides, matching the text volumes; the 4 volumes preserved in 2 modern black half calf clamshell boxes. [8], 388; [6], 226; [4], VI, 326; [4] pp. Full description
€ 35,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Extremely rare example of the largest globe engraved by Malby (45.5 cm diameter), with lines of magnetic variation, London 1848, showing “Debai” (Dubai)

[GLOBE - TERRESTRIAL]. MALBY & CO. Malby's terrestrial globe.
[London], Malby & Co. (engraved by Chas. Malby), 1 January 1848. Diameter: 45.5 cm (18 inch), height in stand: 64.5 cm. An engraved terrestrial globe with 12 gores and 2 polar caps over a plaster-covered core, and the engraved horizon ring on the wooden stand, all coloured by a contemporary hand. In a contemporary wooden stand with 3 turned legs supporting the horizon ring, and 3 turned stretchers with a cylindrical centrepiece with a knob on the underside. Further with a contemporary brass hour circle and a slightly later iron meridian ring (and probably the axis pivots). Full description
€ 35,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the fullest descriptions of life in Sana'a and Turkish-occupied North Yemen

MANZONI, Renzo. El Yèmen. Tre anni nell'Arabia felice. Escursioni fatte dal Settembre 1877 al Marzo 1880.
Rome, Botta heirs, 1884. 8vo. With a frontispiece portrait, 21 plates (including 7 double-page sized; the last single-page plate included in pagination), 2 folding colour-printed maps of Yemen, folding plate of the game "abdùr", folding coloured plan of Sana'a, folding view of Sana'a, folding view of Aden, as well as numerous woodcut illustrations in the text. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with blind-stamped spine and gold-stamped spine-title. Marbled endpapers. [8], VI, [2], 446 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Cross-cultural mapping of the Red Sea: Bruce's chart in an early Egyptian manuscript copy

[MAP - ARABIAN PENINSULA]. BRUCE, James. Carte de la mer Rouge, relevée sur celle de James Bruce.
[Egypt, probably Cairo], 1827. Folio leaf (46 x 31.5 cm). Manuscript map in pen and ink with watercolour, with a French text on Middle Eastern hand-made paper. Full description
€ 15,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

"For offical use only": mapping the Mesopotamian battlefields of WWI

[MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN]. Critical study of the campaign in Mesopotamia up to April 1917. Part II - Maps.
Calcutta, Government of India Press, 1925. 25 (of 26) folding maps, sketches etc., as always lacking the "Explanation of the Method of giving Map Co-ordinates adopted in Chapters XIII and XX". Original tan cloth map-case with original printed label to cover. 25 (of 26) folding ll. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The climate of the East African coast

[ARABIAN GULF]. Weather in the Indian Ocean to Latitude 30° S. and Longitude 95° E. Including the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Volume II. Local information. Part 9 Coast of East Africa from the equator to Cape Delgado [...].
London, Meteorological Office, Air Ministry, 1940. 8vo. With map frontispiece and several illustrations and tables in the text. Original publisher's printed red wrappers. 63 pp., final blank page. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare first edition of a work describing Hadhramaut shortly after it had become a British protectorate

MEULEN, Daniël van der. Aden to the Hadhramaut. A journey in South Arabia.
London, John Murray, [1947]. 8vo. With a double-page map (printed on coated paper) signed: "drawn by M. W. Hawes from a sketch map by Prof. von Wissmann." and 91 black and white photographic illustrations. Original light grey/ beige cloth, with gold-lettering on the spine. XVI, 254, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Instructions for Carsten Niebuhr's expedition to Arabia

MICHAELIS, Johann David. Recueil de questions, proposées à une société de savants, qui par ordre de Sa Majesté Danoise font le voyage de l'Arabie.
Amsterdam, S.J. Baalde; Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven & comp., 1774. 4to. Set in roman type with incidental Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and 1 word in Coptic. Near-contemporary tanned sheepskin, gold-tooled spine. [4], XLIV, 256, [16], 38, [2 blank] pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Enormous panoramic Middle Eastern view with ruins, nearly 6 metres long

[VIEW - MIDDLE EAST]. [Mountainous landscape with Middle Eastern and classical Roman ruins, 6 shepherds with their flocks, several figures riding dromedaries and one riding a donkey, (date?) palms, lakes, etc.].
[Palestine?, ca. 1910?]. An enormous panoramic view drawn in coloured gouaches on a single, continuous roll of paper (70 x 583 cm), the drawing running to the edges of the paper. Full description
€ 35,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Two British voyages to the Middle East and the Moghul Empire

MILDENHALL, John, John CARTWRIGHT and [Samuel PURCHAS (editor)]. Oost-Indise voyagien van Johan Mildenhal en Johan Cartwright; onder veel avontuuren en opmerkelyke waarnemingen, (in de jaren 1599 en 1606) te water en te lande, gedaan na de landen van Persien en den Grooten Mogol.
Leiden, Pieter van der Aa, 1706. Folio. With an engraving on the title-page by Jan Goeree, 2 engraved illustrations in text and a woodcut tailpiece. Modern decorated cloth, dark blue title-labels. 10 ll. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Excellent, attractively coloured large map of the Ottoman Empire at its height

MOLL, Herman. The Turkish empire in Europe, Asia and Africa, divided into all its governments, together with the other territories that are tributary to it, as also the dominions of the Emperor of Marocco.
London, Herman Moll, John Bowles, Thomas Bowles & John King, ca. 1730. A large engraved map in two sheets (61 x 101 cm as assembled) at a scale of about 1:7,100,000, with 3 insets containing 6 topographic and architectural views. Coloured. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

For official use only: Royal Navy wartime handbook on Iraq and the Persian Gulf

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE DIVISION. [MASON, Kenneth, a.o.]. Iraq and the Persian Gulf. September 1944. B.R. 524 (restricted) geographical handbook series for official use only.
[Oxford,] Naval Intelligence division, 1944. 8vo. With numerous diagrams, reproductions of photographs and (folding) maps, including a loose map in the pocket at the back. Publisher's green cloth. 682 pp. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Eyewitness account of the horrors of the Napoleonic campaigns:
Germany, Poland, Moldavia & Turkey in aquatint

NEALE, Adam. Travels through some parts of Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey.
London, (back of title-page: printed by A. Straham), 1818. 4to. With 15 hand-coloured aquatints on 11 plates by I. Clark after drawings by author. 19th-century half morocco (Root bookbinders, London), richly gold-tooled spine. XIII, 295 pp. Full description
€ 1,950
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Niebuhr's description of Arabia: an important contribution to the study of the Middle East

NIEBUHR, Carsten. Beschrijving van Arabie, uit eigene waarnemingen en in 't land zelf verzamelde narigten opgesteld door Carsten Neibuhr. Uit het Hoogduits vertaald, en vermeerderd met een volledig register van 't geheele werk.
Amsterdam and Utrecht, S.J. BAalde and J. van Schoonhoven & Comp., MDCCLXXIV [= 1774]. 2 works in one volume. 4to. With engraved title-page, 24 (partly folding, a few coloured) maps and views, including a long folding map of the Red Sea, a folding genealogical table of the rulers of Sana, and the large map of Yemen (coloured in outline). With some parts (some sentences) of the text printed in Arabic script.
With: (2) MICHAËLIS, Johann David [transl. Jacob van EKERS]. Vragen aan een gezelschap van geleerde mannen, die op bevel zynder majesteit des konings van Denemarken naar Arabie reizen. Voorgesteld door den hooggeleerden en wydberoemden heer Johann David Michaëlis. Koninglyken Grootbrittanischen en keurvorstlyken Brunswyk- Lunenburgschen hofraad, hoogleeraar in de wysbegeerte te Gottingen, en bestierder van de societeit der wetenschappen aldaar. Waarby gevoegd is, beoordeling van Niebuhrs beschryving van Arabie door den zelfden schryver, getrokken uit deszelfs orientalische en exegetische bibliotheek , IV. deel. In 't Neerduitsch vertaald en uitgegeven door Jacob van Ekers, bedienaar des goddelyken woords te Medenblik.
Amsterdam and Utrecht, S.J. Baalde and J. van Schoonhoven and Comp., MDCCLXXIV [=1774].
Contemporary half calf marbled sides, gold-tooled spine, red and black spine labels with the two titles lettered in gold. [6], XXXXI, [1], 408, [14]; [2 blank] XLVI, 270, [2] pp. Full description
€ 2,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A superb set of two lavishly illustrated descriptions of Arabia and the Middle East

NIEBUHR, Carsten. Beschryving van Arabie.
Amsterdam, Steven Jacobus Baalde; Utrecht, Johannes van Schoonhoven & comp. (colophon: printed by Johan Joseph Besseling, Utrecht), 1774. With engraved title-page and 25 engraved plates, including 7 folding showing 1 view of military exercises, 2 Kufic inscriptions (coloured by hand) and 4 maps. The unnumbered map of Yemen (plate size 58.5 x 39 cm) is coloured by hand in outline.
With: (2) NIEBUHR, Carsten. Reize naar Arabië en andere omliggende landen.
Amsterdam, Steven Jacobus Baalde; Utrecht, Johannes van Schoonhoven & comp. (colophons: printed by Johan Joseph Besseling, Utrecht), 1776-1780. With 2 engraved title-pages and 125 engraved plates (38 folding). 2 works in 3 volumes. Large 4to (28.5 x 22.5 cm). Contemporary sprinkled and polished half calf. Untrimmed. [6], XXXXI, [1], 408, [14]; [2], VIII, [6], 484, [2]; [16], 455, [1] pp. Full description
€ 10,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important contribution to the study of the Middle East

NIEBUHR, Carsten. Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres pays circonvoisins. Tome premier[- second]. Traduit de l'Allemand.
Amsterdam, Steven Jacobus Baalde; Utrecht, Barthelemy Wild (colophon: printed by Joh. Jos. Besseling, Utrecht, 1775), 1775-1780. 2 volumes. 4to. With 2 engraved integral title-pages, 124 engraved plates (many folding) and a folding map of Yemen (in partial colour). Contemporary gold-tooled calf. VIII, [6], 409, [1], [1 blank]; VI, [10], 389, [1] pp. Full description
€ 6,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Account of the first scientific expedition to the Middle East, Egypt, Persia and India

NIEBUHR, Carsten. Reize naar Arabië en andere omliggende landen.
Amsterdam, S.J. Baalde; Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven and company (vol. 1) and Bartholomeus Wild (vol. 2) (colophons: Utrecht, printed by J.J. Besseling), 1776-1780. 2 volumes. 4to. With 2 engraved title-pages, each with a vignette, 31 engraved maps and plans and 94 other engraved plates. 19th-century half calf. Untrimmed. VIII, [6], 484, [2]; [16], 455, [1] pp. Full description
€ 6,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Rare travel account

OPPENHEIM, Max von. Vom Mittelmeer zum Persischen Golf durch den Hauran, die Syrische Wüste und Mesopotamien.
Berlin, Dietrich Reimer, 1899-1900. 2 volumes. Large 8vo. With 2 (of 3) folding maps in pockets on the inside of the back board and numerous illustrations in the text and on photographic plates. Original illustrated green cloth. XV, [1], 334; [1], 434 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Ottoman manuscript atlas of the western (mostly European) parts of the Ottoman Empire, with 10 maps

[OTTOMAN ATLAS - MANUSCRIPT]. [Atlas of the western Ottoman Empire].
Ottoman Empire, ca. 1910. Oblong 4to (26.5 x 19.5 cm). 14 leaves with 10 pen-and-ink maps, hand coloured with watercolours. Tissue guards. Gold-stamped cloth with the tughra of Mehmed V (ruled 1908-18) on the front board (when reading right to left) and "Album" on the back board (the front when reading left to right), with an inscription below the tughra and the European numerals "16" and "2" flanking an ornament below the inscription, the whole framed by 4 large floral cornerpieces. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Warmly inscribed by the author

PALGRAVE, William Gifford. Personal narrative of a year's journey through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862-63).
London and New York, Macmillan and Co., 1871. 8vo (ca. 13 x 19 cm). With a linen-backed folding map and 3 extending plans. Contemporary half morocco with maroon cloth over boards, gilt, front board stamped with the owner's initials "G.W.T.", marbled endpapers. [2], VI, [4], 421, [1] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Traversing Qajar Persia with a manuscript guide

[PERSIA - TRAVEL GUIDE]. [Manuscript travel guide].
[Qajar Iran, ca. 1850s]. 8vo (12.5 x 22 cm). Persian manuscript on polished paper. Black nasta'liq script in 15 lines per page, ruled in green and blue, with rubricated chapter headings and marginal medallions. Contemporary limp leather and woven floral-patterned cloth. 26 ll. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

The first European crossing the Rub' al-Khali (Empty Quarter) of Arabia from east to the west

PHILBY, Harry St. John Bridger and Alfred Felix Landon BEESTON. Sheba's daughters beign a record of travel in southern Arabia. With an appendix on the rock inscriptions by A.F.L. Beeston.
London, Methuen & Co., [1939]. 4to. With photographic frontispiece, 46 photographic plates (1 of which double-page), 1 folding map of southern Arabia, and several photographic illustrations in the text. Contemporary light yellow cloth with giltstamped title and ornament to the spine. XIX, [1 blank], 485, [1] pp. Full description
€ 350
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Travelling in the Hadramaut: the longest journey of Philby through southern Arabia

PHILBY, Harry St John Bridger. The land of Sheba (The Geographical Journal Vol. 92, no. 1).
[United Kingdom, The Royal Geographical Society], July 1938. 8vo. With 1 large folding coloured map, 1 smaller uncoloured folding map, and numerous photographs on 7 plates. Later half black cloth. 21, 107-132 pp. Full description
€ 300
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautiful series of moving photographs

[PHOTOGRAPHY - SAUDI ARABIA - KUWAIT]. [Collection of twelve photographs, capturing daily life in Saudi Arabia in the 1950s].
[Saudi Arabia or Kuwait], 1954. Ca. 28.8 x 22.8 cm (sheet size: ca. 35.3 x 27.8 cm). Twelve photographic prints, all signed and dated. Housed in clear plastic folder. [12] photographs. Full description
€ 850
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Only published edition of the original 1521 text of the navigation book of the great Ottoman admiral

PIRI REIS (Paul KAHLE, ed.). Bahrije. Das türkische Segelhandbuch für das Mittelländische Meer vom Jahre 1521.
Berlin and Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1926-1927. 3 volumes. Large 8vo (26 x 18 cm). Volume 1 with 137 reproductions of manuscript pages of Ottoman Turkish text and maps and volume 2 with 4 plates. Publisher's original printed wrappers. [1], [1 blank], [2] pp. + 64 ll. + [4], [1 blank], [1] pp.; ll. 65-137; [1], [1 blank], XLVIII, 88 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

An important source of knowledge of the Near East

POCOCKE, Richard. Beschryving van het Oosten, en van eenige andere landen. Uit het Engelsch overgezet en met aantekeningen voorzien, door Ernst Willem Cramer.
Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, G.T. en A. van Paddenburg, J. Bosch, R. Arrenberg, and M. de Bruyn, 1776-1786. 3 volumes (in 6 parts) bound as 6. 4to. With 205 folding engraved maps, plans, views and plates. Contemporary half calf. Full description
€ 12,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of the earliest maps of Arabia, with unique contemporary illumination

[MAP - ARABIAN PENINSULA]. PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius. [Jacobus ANGELUS, trans.; Nicolaus GERMANUS, ed.]. Sexta Asie Tabula.
Ulm, Lienhart Holle, 1482. Oblong 1mo (whole sheet: 41.5 by 57 cm). With a double-page woodcut map. Finely coloured by a contemporary hand, with near-contemporary manuscript vignette illustrations of an Ababeel bird, Makkah (Mecca) and the Kaaba in pen and wash highlighted in gold. Full description
€ 150,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Second map of the Arabian peninsula ever published

[MAP - ARABIAN PENINSULA]. PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius. Sexta Asiae tabula.
[Rome, Petrus de Turre, 1490 (engraved Rome, ca. 1478)]. Engraved map of the Arabian peninsula (topographic image 25.5 x 46 cm) printed, as usual, on two joined folio leaves (together 39.5 x 56 cm). Mounted on paper board, in a modern gilt frame (50.5 x 67 cm). Full description
€ 50,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

A Danish traveller in Kuwait, Saudi-Arabia and Bahrain, meets Mubarak al-Sabah and Ibn Saud, presentation copy

RAUNKIAER, Barclay. Gennem Wahhabiternes land paa kamelryg. Beretning om den af det Kongelige Danske Geografiske Selskab planlagte og bekosterde forskningsrejse i Ost- og Centralarabien 1912.
Copenhagen, Gyldendalske boghandel, Nordisk forlag, 1913. 8vo. With a frontispiece showing the author in Arab garb, 88 illustrations in text, most of them reproductions of drawings and photographs by the author, and a folding map loosely inserted in a pocket at the end. Publisher's green cloth. [1], [1 blank], [2], 304 pp. Full description
€ 5,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Travelogue of Arabia by a distinguished Lebanese Arab-American writer, with 32 plates

RIHANI, Ameen. Around the coasts of Arabia.
London, Constable & Co., 1930. 8vo. With a pictorial map as frontispiece, 31 photographic half-tone plates and a full-page map on an integral leaf. Original publishers black cloth, with title in gold on spine. X, [2], 364 pp. Full description
€ 1,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First and only publication of the original text of the primary logbook of the first Dutch expedition
to the Arabian Gulf by Cornelis Cornelisz Roobacker

[ROOBACKER, Cornelis Cornelisz.] A. HOTZ (publ.). Cornelis Cornelisz Roobacker's scheepsjournaal Gamron-Basra (1645); de eerste reis der Nederlanders door de Perzische Golf. Uitgegeven, met inleiding en noten, door A. Hotz.
In: BEEKMAN, A.A. etc. (eds.), Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap gevestigd te Amsterdam. Tweede serie Deel XXIV. No. 3 (15 Mei).
Leiden, Brill, 1907. 8vo. One folding table and 3 folding maps (1 belonging to another article in the journal). Brown paper wrappers, with title information of the journal on the front and spine, and the contents on the back wrapper. 289-405 [=117] pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Road map of Saudi Arabia, with plans of Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam

[SAUDI ARABIA – MAP]. Road map of Saudi Arabia: accurate and most up to date road map.
Karachi, Pakistan, printed at Golden block works, [1970s]. Colour-printed folding map (48 x 69.5 cm) of the Arabian peninsula (scale: ca. 1:5,000,000), with on the back a city map of Jeddah, a plan of the main business quarter of Riyadh, a city plan of Dammam(?), a distance table and 8 photographic city views. Full description
€ 1,750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Freya Stark's first extensive travels through the Middle East,
described in the second part of her autobiography

STARK, Freya. Beyond Euphrates. Autobiography 1928-1933.
London, John Murray, 1951. 8vo. With a double-page map on green paper, 40 double-sided plates, a green ornament on the title-page and some decorations in the text. Green cloth with gold lettering on front cover and spine. With dust jacket designed by F. Quilter. XIII, [3], 341 [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 580
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Best edition of Strabo's "Geographika" including Casaubon's notes, with descriptions of the Arabian Peninsula

STRABO. Rerum geographicarum libri XVII.
Paris, typis Regiis [Fédéric Morel], 1620. 2 parts in 1 volume. Folio. With title-page printed in red and black with the engraved coat of arms of Louis XIII, and several woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary gold-tooled parchment, gilt edges. [12], 843, [112]; [4], 282, [8] pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Authoritative history of the Portuguese missions in Ethiopia and Arabia, with a folding map

TELLEZ (TELLES), Balthasar. The travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia: containing ... travels in Arabia Felix, wherein many things of that country ... are treated of, as a particular description of Aden, Moca, and several other places ...
London, J. Knapton [and 3 others, and sold by 5 more], 1710. 4to. With engraved map of Ethiopia, including part of the Red Sea and the source of the Blue Nile. Modern calf. [4], 264, [16] pp. Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Dutch edition of Thévenot's travels in the Levant, with Jan Luyken's splendid illustrations of 1681

THÉVENOT, Melchisedec Jean-Baptiste. Alle de gedenkwaardige en zeer naauwkeurige reizen ...; mitsgaders de voornaamster byzonderheden van d'Archipel, Konstantinopolen, 't Heilige Land, Egypten, de woestynen van Arabie, Mekka ...
Amsterdam, Gerrit Bos, 1731. 4to. With engraved title-page, standing portrait of the author in Eastern garb, 19 engraved plates (including 2 folding) drawn, etched and engraved by Jan Luyken. 18th-century half calf, sprinkled-paper sides, refurbished in the 19th century and with a 20th-century spine label. [4], 484, [4] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Important anthropological study on the original inhabitants of the southern Arabic Peninsula

THOMAS, Bertram. Anthropological observations in South Arabia.
[offprint from:] Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 42 (1932). Large 8vo. With 2 plates (XI-XII) from photographs: (1) two views on the landscapes of the Sands of Dakara and the Qara Mountains, Arabia; (2) 12 portraits of members of the various tribes of Southern Arabia/Jemen. Blue wrappers with printed title label on the front cover. 83-108 pp. Full description
€ 750
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Japanese woodblock geography of the Middle and Near East and Indonesia, with 5 maps and 35 views

UCHIDA Masao. Yochi shiryaku [Compendium of world geography].
[Tokyo], Meiji 4 [= 1871]. (25.5 x 17 cm). With the title and all text in Japanese, printed from woodblocks on rice paper, with 1 double-page, 2 full-page and 2 half-page maps and 12 full-page and 23 half-page illustrations of architecture, people and costumes, topography, plants and animals. Original publisher's heavy paper wrapper. [1 blank], 59, [1] ll. Full description
€ 4,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

U.S. Air Force aeronautical chart of the future UAE

[UNITED ARAB EMIRATES]. USAF Pilotage Chart. Ash Sharigah (548 D). Trucial Oman.
Washington, DC, Aeronautical Chart Service, U.S. Air Force, 1948-1950. Colour-printed map, 554 x 733 mm. Constant ratio linear horizontal scale 1:500,000., Lambert Conformal Conic Projection. Relief shown by contours, shading, gradient tints, and spot heights. Key printed on verso. Full description
€ 3,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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

VALLE, Pietro della. Vierde[-zeste en leste] deel der voortreffelyke reizen van de deurluchtige reisiger Pietro della Valle, Edelman van Romen, in veel voorname gewesten des werrelts, sedert het jaar 1615, gedaan: namelijk in Turkijen, Egipten, Palestina, Persien, Oostindien, en in verscheide andere lantschappen, daar in hij al t aanmerkingswaerdige, dat er is, naerstiglijk opgespeurt, en naaukeurig aangemerkt, en veel treffelijke dingen, tot noch toe onbekent, ten toon gestelt heeft.
Amsterdam, widow of Jan Hendriksz. Boom, Jan Rieuwertsz and Abraham Wolfgang, 1665. 3 (of 6) volumes bound as 1. 4to. With 3 title-pages, 13 full-page engraved plates (1 crudely hand-coloured).
Contemporary vellum, manuscript spine title, later endpapers. 187, [1 blank]; [4], 186, [2 blank]; [4], 185, [11] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

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
Order Inquire Terms of sale

4 rare Dutch travel works concerning the Middle East, Arabia, the East Indies and other exotic lands,
including the first recorded non-Islamic visitor to Mecca (350 years before Sir Richard Burton)

VARTHEMA, Ludivico di (Felix van SAMBIX DE JONGE, translator). De uytnemende en seer wonderlijcke zee-en-landt-reyse van de heer Ludovvyck di Barthema, ... gedaen inde Morgenlanden, Syrien, vruchtbaer en woest Arabien, Perssen, Indien, Egypten, Ethiopien, en andere.
Utrecht, Gerald Nieuwenhuysen and Willem Snellaart, 1654. With an engraved title-page, 4 engraved plates and woodcut initials, headpieces and tailpieces.
With:
(2) ROE, Thomas. Journael van de reysen ...
Amsterdam, Jacob Benjamin, 1656. With an engraved title-page, 4 large engravings in the text, 3 with scenes of the Mughal court life and the other depicting a sea battle, and woodcut decorated initials.
(3) MOCQUET, Jean. Reysen in Afrique, Asien, Oost- en West Indien, ...
Dordrecht, for Abraham Andriesz. (colophon: printed by Nicolaes de Vries), 1656.
With an engraving on the title-page showing a shipwreck, repeated in the text on p. 87, and 9 other large engravings in the text.
(4) BLANC, Vincent le (Jan Hendrik GLAZEMAKER, translator). De vermaarde reizen van de heer Vincent le Blanc van Marsilien die hy sedert d' ouderdom van veertien jaren tot aan die van zestig in de vier delen des werrelts, Europa, Asia, Afrika en Amerika, gedaan heeft. Te weten in Oost- en Westindien, in Persien, Arabien, Pegu, en in meest alle de landen van Oostindien, in de koninkrijken van Fez en Marokko, in Guinea, en in 't geheel innerlijk deel van Afrika, van de Kaap de Bone Esperance af, tot in Alexandria, deur de landen van Monomotapa, Abissyna, en Egypien, in Spanjen, Frankrijk, Italiën en Nederlant, en in veel vermaarde eilanden van de werelt.
Amsterdam, for Jan Hendriksz. Boom & Jan Rieuwertsz., 1654. With an engraved title-page, 7 engraved plates, 2 extremely finely engraved initials with pictorial decoration on p. 1 and p. 3 of the first part (the V with an allegorical female figure giving a plate of fruit to the author(?) with his books and an armillary sphere, and a T with a group of turbaned figures) and 1 larger decorated woodcut initial.
4 works in 1 volume. 4to. Contemporary vellum with manuscript title on spine, new endpapers. 126; [8], 56, 56, 24, [2]; [14], 153, [1 blank]; [4], 152, 116 pp. Full description
€ 8,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

One of 300 copies ever published, from the collection of Baron James de Rothschild

VELDE, Charles William Meredith van de. Le Pays d'Israël. Collection de cent vues prises d'après nature dans la Syrie et la Palestine pendant son voyage d'exploration géographique en 1851 et 1852.
Paris, Veuve Jules Renouard, 1857. Elephant folio (44 x 57 cm). With 99 lithographed plates and 1 engraved map. Contemporary half red morocco and brown marbled paper, with the title lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine, marbled endpapers. [1], 88 pp. Full description
€ 28,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Early work of one of the greatest French mathematicians

VIÈTE, François. Principes de cosmographie, tirez d'un manuscrit de Viette, & traduits en François. Corrigées et augmentées.
Paris, Jean Behourt, 1647. 12mo. With 2 woodcut illustrations in the text (a geocentric universe and a simple geometric figure). Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment. [8], "72" [=172] pp. Full description
€ 11,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

"Arabia Petra" explored: account of an expedition (1865) through the Sinai, Petra in Jordan, and surrounding regions, with 48 plates and albumen prints

VISCONTI, Giammartino Arconati. Diario di un viaggio in Arabia Petrea (1865).Including: Atlante per servire al Diario di un viaggio in Arabia Petrea.
Torino, Vincenzo Bona, 1872. 2 volumes. Royal 4to (31 x 27 cm). With 2 title-pages printed in red and black, each with the author's wood-engraved decorated GAV-monogram and motto; vol. 1 with 2 folding lithographed maps (1 printed in black, brown and blue, with the route coloured by hand in red, of the Sinai Peninsula; the other in black and white, of the city of Petra); 40 mounted albumen prints after paintings by Emile Pierre Metzmacher (mainly 11.5 x 16 cm), individually mounted with letterpress captions on the mount; and 2 engraved plates; vol. 2 with 6 numbered engraved plates of molluscs and insects. The Diario in the original publisher's maroon cloth with the author's crowned monogram gold--blocked on the front board and spine. The Atlante in the original publisher's blue cloth, with the author's crowned monogram and the title gold-blocked on the front board. Both volumes with gilt edges, orange endpapers and with tissue guard leaves tipped in, protecting the albumen prints and engraved plates. 439; 46, [2 blank] pp. (vol. II, pp. 1-2 blank). Full description
€ 25,000
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Hand-coloured map of Africa, with an especially accurate southern coastline

[MAP - AFRICA]. VISSCHER, Nicolaas. Africae accurata tabula.
[Amsterdam], Nicolas Visscher, [ca. 1690?]. Engraved double-page map (image size: 43.5 x 54 cm; leaf size: 51 x 60 cm), coloured by a contemporary hand. With title in a decorated cartouche on the top right flanked by two Africans and two putti and dedication to Gerardus Schaap in a decorated cartouche on the bottom left, with Schaap's coat of arms on top and flanked by mythical figures. Further illustrated with small ships and African animals (including lions, monkeys, rhinoceros and ostriches). In passepartout (56 x 66 cm). Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale

First edition of H.A.G. Percy, Lord Warkworth's accounts of his travels through Anatolia

WARKWORTH, Lord (Henry Algernon George PERCY, Earl Percy). Notes from a dairy in Asiatic Turkey.
London, Edward Arnold publisher to the India Office, 1898. Large 8vo (ca. 24 x 18 cm). With one large folding map of Turkey (ca. 55 x 24 cm), printed in black and red, and 32 plates with half-tone reproductions of photographs. Green buckram with gold-blocked decorations on the front board. XVI, 267, [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,250
Order Inquire Terms of sale

With two large maps of Yemen

WERDECKER, Josef. A contribution to the geography and cartography of north-west Yemen (based on the results of the exploration by Eduard Glaser, undertaken in the years 1882-1884).
Cairo, lInstitut Français dArchéologie Orientale du Caire, 1939. 8vo. With a portrait of Eduard Glaser, 8 numbered plates and 2 large folding maps. Later half cloth, with the original front wrapper mounted on the front board. [2], 160 pp. Full description
€ 2,800
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Beautifully illustrated description of Palestine, Sinai and Egypt

WILSON, Charles. Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. Edited by Colonel Wilson, R.E, C.B., F.R.S. formerly engineer to the Palestine Exploration Society. Assisted by the most eminent Palestine explorers etc. With numerous engravings on steel and wood.
London, Virtue and Co., [ca. 1870]. 4 volumes. Large 4to (33 x 25 cm). With 4 title-pages in red and black, each with a different large steel-engraved vignette, 38 steel-engraved plates (including 4 different frontispieces), 2 double-page engraved maps of Egypt and Sinai, printed in brown, and 576 wood-engravings on integral leaves, many full-page. Contemporary half sheepskin. [2], X, 240; [2], VI, 240; [2], IV, 240; [2], IV, 236 pp. Full description
€ 2,500
Order Inquire Terms of sale
147 books books found / Show pages