Lucas, Paul. Voyage [...], fait en M.DCCXIV, &c. par ordre de Louis XIV. dans la Turquie, l'Asie, Sourie, Paléstine, Haute et Basse Égypte, &c.

$2,694.00

Second edition (first published in 1719). "Paul Lucas (1664-1737), merchant, naturalist, doctor and antiquary, made many visits to various parts of the Levant following his service with the Venetians at Negroponte in 1688. [...] This work describes Lucas's third voyage of 1714 to 1717 during which he visited Constantinople, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and also includes a list of the antiquities discovered" (Blackmer). Edited and co-written by Antoine Banier. The plates show Tyre, Damascus, the Great Pyramid and numerous other antiquties, flora and fauna; the maps show Asia Minor and the Nile Delta. "Many commentators have criticised Lucas for the often fabulous nature of his accounts, but his writings convey a vivd sense of the nature of the East, laced with considerable classical erudition" (ibid.).

Occasional insignificant browning. A fine copy from the library of Henry Blackmer with his bookplate on the pastedowns; latterly in the Ottoman collection of the Swiss industrialist Herry W. Schaefer.