[Rarebooks] fa: GEORGE SANDYS: A RELATION OF A JOURNEY 1632 - TURKISH EMPIRE, EGYPT, HOLY LAND &c.

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 18. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/y4fwcle6

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[George Sandys:] A Relation of a Journey begun An: Dom: 1610. Foure bookes. Containing a description of the Turkish Empire, of Ægypt, of the Holy Land, of the Remote parts of Italy, and I[s]lands adioyning. The third [i.e., fourth] edition. London: Printed [by George Miller] for Ro: Allot, 1632. Folio (28 cm) in later, but not recent, goatskin, gilt-lettered spine label; [4], 309, [1] pp.; with an engraved title-page and 45 copper-engraved maps and illustrations, one of which is full-page and one nearly so. Lacking the small folding panorama of the Seraglio, as often. ESTC S116687; STC 21729; Bowers & Davis, 1 (d).

Binding worn, spine rubbed and chipped, both boards detached, but with the text block securely bound; engraved title-page with some toning and soiling and an early owner's signature (Jos: Merlott); another early reader (Mary Hull) has practiced her signature several times on the dedication leaf; later signature of P. H. Pye-Smith on the (blank) front free-endpaper; modern ink notation to the verso of the title-page; contents with occasional spots, stains and light soiling; occasional marginal annotations in an early hand, presumably Mr. Merlott's; a few leaves with marginal tears and/or early paper repairs; one leaf with a corner torn away, not affecting any text; else generally quite clean and sound.

An early edition of this landmark of English Renaissance travel writing and one the first illustrated books of travels in the Middle East. George Sandys (1578-1644), the seventh and youngest son of the Archbishop of York, left England in 1610 "on an extended foreign tour. He passed through France just after Henry IV's assassination, and, journeying through north Italy, sailed from Venice to the east. He spent a year in Turkey, in Egypt, where he visited the pyramids, and in Palestine. Before returning to England he studied the antiquities of Rome under the guidance of Nicholas Fitzherbert... Sandys was an observant traveller. Izaak Walton noticed in his 'Compleat Angler' (pt. i. ch. i.) Sandys's account of the pigeon-carrier service between Aleppo and Babylon. His visit to the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem inspired an outburst of fervent verse—'A hymn to my Redeemer'—whence Milton derived hints for his 'Ode on the Passion' (stanza vii)" (DNB).