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Tournefort, Joseph Pitton De.
A Voyage into the Levant;
Publisher: D. Browne et al, London;
Date of Publication: 1718
Stock Code: 14141
First English Edition. Two volumes. Crown quarto, pp.,[ii] i- xl, 402, xli-xlii, [i] blank; [iv], 398, [xvii] of index. Complete with 152 plates and 1 large gatefold map of the Black Sea and the Levant by John Senex, not present in the French edition. Uniformly bound in contemporary Cambridge panelled calf, very capably re-cased, floral tooling in blind to boards, rolls in gilt to board-edges, ornaments in gilt within compartments to spine, titled in gilt to leather spine-label. Partially scraped gift inscription ‘Ex Dono Fratris [...]’, contemporary price, and ownership inscription of Sir George Chudleigh, 4th Bt. (d. 1738) dated 1719 to front paste-downs, inscription of Sir Tho[mas] Chudleigh, 5th Bt. (d. 1741), partially obliterated, and H[enry] Fownes Luttrell (1723-1780) dated 1754 and priced 14/s, to title-pages. Corners rubbed with a little loss, slight shelf-wear to edges of boards, light, scattered foxing throughout, small, unobtrusive worming to lower margin of 218-243, faded manicule to 284. A very good copy. Joseph Pitton de Tournefort was an influential French botanist and travel writer, credited with inventing the word herbarium. These volumes recount Tourneforts extensive voyages to the near- and middle-east. John Senex was an English cartographer, astrologer and geographer to Queen Anne. Illustrated with a panoply of plates which depict a rich, broad variety of views, plans, plants, animals, antiquities, and aspects of everyday life. £1500.00