Tournefort, Joseph Pitton De

Relation D'Un Voyage Du Levant, Fair Par Ordre Du Roy. Contenant L'Histoire Ancienne Et Moderne De Plusieurs Isles De L'Archipel, De Constantinople, Des Côtes De La Mer Noire, De L'Armenie, De La Georgie, Des Frontières De Perse, & De L'Asie Mineure....

      Lyons (Anisson et Posuel), 1717. 3 vols. (22), 379, 448, 404, (60)pp., 153 engraved plates, plans and maps (6 folding). Stout 8vo. Eighteenth-century French tree-calf gilt, raised bands, with red and green morocco lettering pieces. A.e.g. Second edition of the work, published in the same year as the Paris first edition, in quarto; a third edition was issued in 1718 (Amsterdam), as was an English translation. ?The botanist Pitton de Tournefort was sent on a mission to the Levant by Louis XIV in 1700. He was accompanied by the artist Claude Aubriet and the doctor Gundelsheimer. Pitton de Tournefort traveled extensively in the Archipelago, visiting most of the islands in the Cyclades...He also spent a considerable period in Crete before going to Constantinople and Asia Minor, the coasts of the Black Sea and then overland through Armenia to Persia. The travellers returned to Paris in June 1702....The text takes the form of letters to M. de Pontchartrain, who sponsored Pitton's mission. The very fine plates are after Aubriet's drawings, and illustrate costumes, botanical and zoological specimens, views and maps? (Leonora Navari, in the Blackmer catalogue). An elegant copy.