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Anon.
A True Historicall discourse of Muley Hamets rising to the three Kingdomes of Moruecos, Fes, and Sus. [The First Account of Sherley’s Travels in Morocco]
Publisher: Printed by Thomas Purfoot for Clement Knight, London;
Date of Publication: 1609
Stock Code: 14228
Quarto, sig., A-K4, L1, lacks the final blank. Later spotted full calf, blind double fillets to boards, titles gilt to spine, all edges speckled red. An early English account of Morocco, by an anonymous pamphleteer sometimes called ‘Robert Cottingham’. This volume gives an account of the privateer and adventurer Sir Anthony Sherley’s (1565-1636?) ambassadorships from Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, to Mowlai Abd-el-Aziz, son of Ahmed II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. These accounts were made famous in Samuel Purchas’s influential ‘Purchas his Pilgrimmes’ (1614), which is a rather more robust volume. Sherley was a remarkably well travelled Elizabethan gentleman, beginning his career as a captain in Robert Dudley’s forces, before becoming a knight of Henri IV, and then launching military expeditions to West Africa, Sao Tome, and Jamaica. Sherley journeyed to Persia, where he became the representative of the Shah in Moscow, Prague, and Rome. Effectively exiled from his own country, Sherley went to Prague, where he became emissary of the Holy Roman Emperor to Morocco. He would later became an admiral of the Spanish fleet in the Levant. He died in 1635, penniless and obscure. This pamphlet presents Sherley’s experiences in Morocco, as well as accounts from other travellers like him, as it would have appeared to the English reading public for the first time. Slight nicks to boards, joints beginning to crack. First and final leaves a little soiled, and small contemporary ink numeral to title-page. Modest paper repair to margin of C4, and occasional light spots of soiling to margins only. A very good copy. £9500.00