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.
€ 8,500
Ad 1: Rare second Dutch translation of a highly important and adventurous narrative, including an account of the first recorded non-Islamic visitor to Mecca. This translation was made by Felix van Sambix the younger based on the German translation of the Italian original (the Itinerario) made by Hieronymus Megiser. The present edition includes for the first time several full-page engravings, for example one showing a 15th-century battle against camel-riding Arabs and another depicting a Sati ritual.
"Varthema's Itinerario, ..., had an enormous impact at the time, and in some respects determined the course of European expansion towards the Orient" (Howgego), making it one of the most important Middle Eastern and Asian travel stories in history.
Ad 2 (bound before ad 1): First and only edition of the illustrated Dutch translation of Roe's journal as edited by Samuel Purchas with new illustrations made for it, describing his stay at the Mughal court for almost three years (1615-1618), a major contribution to Europe's knowledge of Asia.
Ad 3: First Dutch edition of an account by Jean Mocquet (1575-1616) of the six voyages he made between 1601 and 1612 to (1) northern Africa and the Canary Islands, (2) to the Caribbean and Brazil, (3) to Morocco and other parts of Africa, (4) to eastern Africa and the East Indies (made ca. 1609), (5) to Syria and the Holy Land and (6) to Spain.
Ad 4: First Dutch edition and first illustrated edition in any language of Vincent le Blanc's eye-witness accounts of his world travels through Persia (Iran), Arabia, Burma (Myanmar), the East Indies, and in the second part Morocco, Guinea, the African interior, the Cape, Constantinople (Istanbul), the Middle East, North and South America and even China. It was first published in French as Les voyages fameux (Paris, 1648), here translated into Dutch by Jan Hendrik Glazemaker (1620-1982).
Binding a little stained. Ad 2 with a water stain in the gutter margin and the paper edges a little frayed, lacking the blank leaf Q4. With some occasional small spots in ad 1, some water stains in the lower right corner of ad 3 and also in some parts of ad 4, which also shows some very slight water stains in the gutter margin. Otherwise in good condition. A highly interesting convolute of beautifully illustrated stories of travel through the Middle East, Arabia, India (including the Mogul Empire in Roes work), Persia, the East and West Indies, Guinea, Africa and many more regions. Ad 1: STCN (9 copies); Tiele, Volkenkunde 1128; cf. Howgego, to 1800, V15; Lach I, pp. 164-166. Ad 2: Cox I, p. 269; Lach & Van Kley III, pp. 564, 635-644; STCN (5 copies); Slot, The Arabs of the Gulf, p. 417; Tiele, Volkenkunde 927. Ad 3: Borba de Moraes, p. 576; Cordier, Indosinica, 884; JCB, M390; Sabin 49791; STCN (5 copies); Tiele, Volkenkunde 757. Ad 4: Borba de Moraes I, p. 460; Sabin 39592; STCN (9 copies); Tiele, Volkenkunde 647.
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