Voyages de Monsieur le Chevalier Chardin en Perse et autres lieux de l'Orient (3 tomes)

Johannes Chardin Chevalier

Chez Jean Louis De Lorme, A Amsterdam, 1711

[18th Century Travels to the Middle East and Persia] 3 volumes. Quartos.  Contemporary calf, rebacked with later leather spines. Housed in custom made cloth slip cases. Collated: [8] 279 ; 454 ; 254 [26 index] pages.; engraved frontispiece portrait, 73 (of 77) engraved plates (55 folding), engraved folding map. Titles in red and black.  Lacking plates: XVIII, XXIX, XLV, LXXV.  Refs: Brunet, I, 1802; Chadenat 35; Cox I, p. 250; Atabey 219; Howgego C102: "The earliest editions of Chardin's travels curiously contain nothing on his journey to India. Chardin apparently refused to include his Indian travels as a consequence of his imperfect understanding of Indian religion and culture. The first edition to include his Indian travels was published in Amsterdam in 1711."  This edition being the first complete edition of Chardin's travels. 

"Chardin traveled extensively in the East from 1665 to 1677, trading and acting as advisor to various Moslem officials.  His observations were quite perspective, and were considered by many of his contemporaries to be the best account of the Moslem lands that had yet been published,  A Hugenot, he settled in England in 1681, where he was appointed court jeweller to Charles II.  He became a member of the Royal Society in 1682, and served as the King's envoy to Holland in 1684.  He died in 1712 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.  The First volume of his journal was published in London in 1686.  The complete work did not appear until this edition, which Brunet considers the most beautiful." - John Howell Books. <br> Book plate of Joseph M. Gleason.  (Monsignor Joseph M. Gleason (1869-1942) was a Californian Catholic priest, educationalist, historian and collector of books and photographs.)