Second edition of an authoritative account of Aleppo and Ottoman life and manners, based on Russell's experience as physician to the British factory in Aleppo from 1740 to 1753. Enlarged with 3 additional plates compared to the 1756 first edition. Includes an engraved frontispiece with a view of the city, a plan by Carsten Niebuhr (vol. I, plate I), and an additional plate showing fish (vol. II, plate VI). Apart from the Syrian flora and fauna and as the local climate, Russell's monograph discusses the everyday life of the local population, including that of European merchants living in Aleppo, the organisation of their trade activity, and their social life. He also includes a section on the plague and other epidemic diseases in the 1740s. The descriptions of the education system, the production of manuscripts, and the commercial activity in Syria are unusually detailed and unique in contemporary travel literature on the Ottoman Empire (cf. Chatzipanagioti-Sangmeister). The botanical plates were produced by G. D. Ehret, and one plate of fish bears the name of W. Skelton, while other plates, including those depicting birds and domestic life, are unsigned, but were probably produced by Russell himself.
A charmingly bound set documenting an era of scientific and economic prosperity in Syria.
Binding lightly scuffed; interior fresh and extremely well preserved. Blackmer 1458; Chatzipanagioti-Sangmeister 893; Cox I, 227; ESTC T149605; Navari 1458; Nissen BBI 3534; cf. Atabey 1064 (1762 Dutch edition).