1788, ISBN: f0ae9f673b657662a8510cdc8d8bd927

Paris:: Courcier, 1807., 1807. 2 volumes. 8vo. [6], x, 487, [1]; [iv], 492 pp. Half-titles, 5 folding engraved plates (including detailed engravings of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giz… Meer...

Paris:: Courcier, 1807., 1807. 2 volumes. 8vo. [6], x, 487, [1]; [iv], 492 pp. Half-titles, 5 folding engraved plates (including detailed engravings of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza), 3 folding maps (incl. frontis., a folding map of Egypt, p. 288 Syria, II, p. 400 Turkey), ads (in front & rear). Original full mottled calf, gilt spine, red leather spine labels; joints rubbed but strong. Ownership Signature of Benjamin B. Wood. Very good. Fourth edition, first issued in 1787, here printed with additional plates. This is a key source for the study of Ottoman Egypt, Syria and modern day Lebanon, sometimes called the Levant. Volney describes the geography of the region, the climate, its history, cultures, the militia, economy and trade, diseases, the monuments, natural history, politics, people, law, religions, farming and agriculture, craftsmen, merchants, commerce, arts, sciences, and character of the inhabitants. All this is set within the presence of the years just prior to the outbreak of the French Revolution, which started in 1789. "In 1783 Volney gave up the thought of following any particular profession and set out for the East. He arrived at Cairo ostensibly on a scientific mission, although many there regarded him as a spy [he was later accused of spying on America by John Adams' administration]. In order to master Arabic he shut himself away in a convent for eight months, then journeyed to the pyramids at Giza, and moved to Suez where he lived with the Bedouin. While there he entertained the notion of constructing a canal to link the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. Sailing from Alexandria in September 1783, he visited Syria and the Lebanon, concluding his journey at Acre (=Akko) in 1785. After a brief halt at Alexandria he returned to France, where his documents turned out to be of enormous value in the planning of Napoleon's campaign to Egypt. Volney, however, persistently opposed such intervention, despite producing a pamphlet which uncannily anticipated French involvement in the region." Encyclopedia of Exploration to 1800, V61. / "The French author and traveller Constantin-Francois de Chasseboeuf (17571820) adopted the pen name Volney, which combined the name of Voltaire and Ferney, where the great philosopher lived. A friend of Thomas Jefferson and other Enlightenment figures, Volney used an inheritance to further his education by travelling to Ottoman Egypt and the historical region of Syria, visiting areas of present-day Lebanon and Israel. He chose these lands as he believed he would gain political and philosophical insights from their ancient heritage. Very little had been written in the West about these areas before he published this two-volume account in 1787. It enjoyed great popularity and even accompanied Darwin aboard the Beagle on his own voyage of discovery decades later. Reissued here is the revised and corrected French second edition, which also appeared in 1787. The volumes explore geography, history, ethnic divisions, religious beliefs, commerce, politics and customs." Cambridge University Press (2014). / De Volney was a French philosopher and historian, and a member of the Estates-General during the French Revolution. Alexander Cook*, who believes that Volney's influence is as a "key thinker", though often forgotten in today's sense of that history, examines this books as a specimen of geo-politics of both French anti-imperialist thought and French imperial practice in North Africa and the Levant, where France was seeking to expand its global influence and power during the following decades. [* Cook is at Australian National University, School of History, received his PhD from University of Cambridge]. CONTENTS: Volume 1: Preface; - Part I. Etat physique de l'Egypte: - 1. De l'Egypte en general, et de la ville d'Alexandrie; - 2. Du Nil, et de l'extension du delta; - 3. De l'exhaussement de delta; - 4. Des vents de l'Egypte; - 5. Du climat et de l'air d'Egypte; - Part II. Etat politique de l'Egypte: - 6. Des diverses races des habitans de l'Egypte; - 7. Precis de l'histoire des Mamlouks; - 8. Precis de l'histoire de d'Ali-bek; - 9. Precis des evenemens arrives depuis la mort d'Ali-bek jusqu'en 1785; - 10. Etat present de l'Egypte; - 11. Constitution de la milice des Mamlouks; - 12. Gouvernement des Mamlouks; - 13. Etat du commerce; - 14. De l'isthme de Suez; - 15. Des douanes et des impots; - 16. De la ville du Kaire; - 17. Des maladies de l'Egypte; - 18. Tableau resume de l'Egypte; - 19. Des ruines et des pyramides; - Part III. Etat physique de la Syrie: - 20. Geographie et histoire naturaelle de la Syrie; - 21. Considerations sur les phenomenes des vents, des nuages, des pluies, des brouillards et du tonnerre; - Part IV. Etat politique de la Syrie: - 22. Des habitans de la Syrie, et de la langue usitee; - 23. Des peuples errans ou pasteurs en Syrie. Volume 2: - 24. Des peuples agricoles ou sedentaires de la Syrie; - 25. Precis de l'histoire de Daher; - 26. Distribution de la Syrie par pachalics; - 27. Du pachalic d'Alep; - 28. Du pachalic de Tripoli; - 29. Du pachalic de Saide; - 30. Du pachalic de Damas; - 31. De la Palestine; - 32. Resume de la Syrie; - 33. Du gouvernement des Turks en Syrie; - 34. De l'administration de la justice; - 35. De l'influence de a religion; - 36. De la propriete et des conditions; - 37. Des paysans et de l'agriculture; - 38. Des artisans, des amrchands, et du commerce; - 39. Des arts, des sciences, et de l'ignorance; - 40. Des habitudes et du caractere des habitans de la Syrie. PROVENANCE: Benjamin B. Wood (unknown, as there are many with this name). / See: Alexander Cook, "The Great Society of the Human Species': Volney and the Global Politics of Revolutionary France," Intellectual History Review, Volume 23, 2013 - Issue 3: Discourses of Humanity in the Enlightenment: Local Mediations of a Global Aspiration; Alexander Cook, "Volney and the Science of Morality in Revolutionary France," Humanities Research, Vol. 16, No. 2, May 1, 2010; Samir Khalaf, Protestant Missionaries in the Levant: Ungodly Puritans, 1820-1860, Routledge, 2012., Courcier, 1807., 1807, 0, Paris: Chez Desenne & Chez Volland. Very Good. 1787. Seconde Edition Revue et Corrogee. Hardcover. The second edition, reviewed & corrected, published in 1787, the same year as the first edition, Two volumes bound with vellum spines over decorative boards with 4 spine bands & black lettering. Marbled endpapers. Deckle page edges. [xvi, I383pp] [viii, 458pp (4) ] llustrated with 2 fold-out maps and 3 fold-out plates (2 engravings & 1 plan). Hinges and text are tight, clean & intact. The book chronicles the cultures, history, and languages of the areas Volney visited. Armorial bookplate of W. Arthur Jeffery: motto "supra spem spero". French text. Middle East, Syria, Egypt. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 821 pages ., Chez Desenne & Chez Volland, 1787, 3, London: printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Pater-Noster-Row, 1788. Hardcover. Good. Octavo. Two volumes. I:[iv], xii, 418pp.; II: [iv], iv, 500, [xv]pp. Second English edition. I: []2, A6, B8-Z8, Aa8-Dd8, Ee2; II: []4, B8-Z8, Aa8-Ii8, Kk2, Ll8. With half-titless to both volumes present. Contemporary calf, rehinged at an earlier date. Some scuffing and wear to covers, hinges still tender. With two folding maps of Syria and Egypt and two plates of buildings in the two countries, plus a folding plan. ESTC T12218., London: printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Pater-Noster-Row, 1788, 2.5<

1785, ISBN: f0ae9f673b657662a8510cdc8d8bd927

gebonden uitgave

Londres (= Amsterdam) 1773. (3), 210 S.; (1) Bl., 176; 167 S., Ldr., Anm. aV., min. Anstr. . -- Vercruysse 1773, A5.., Londres (= Amsterdam) 1773., 0, 1774. London, 1774. 8vo. Very n… Meer...

Londres (= Amsterdam) 1773. (3), 210 S.; (1) Bl., 176; 167 S., Ldr., Anm. aV., min. Anstr. . -- Vercruysse 1773, A5.., Londres (= Amsterdam) 1773., 0, 1774. London, 1774. 8vo. Very nice, contemporary full mottled calf with richly gilt spine. Gilt line to edges of boards. Marbled edges. A bit of minor scattered brownspotting and some smaller dampstaining towards end. All in all a very nice copy. (4), III, (1), 151 pp. Beautiful woodcut vignettes. Possibly first edition. One of three editions printed in 1774, none of which has been established as the true first. All three editions are printed in London but differ in number of pages, the other two having 96 and 84 respectively, ours having 151. This very interesting work of the French Enlightenment is probably not written by Helvetius, but by whom is not known. It does stay within the controversial lines of the great Enlightenment philosophers, though, probably being the reson why the author has never been identified. It has a lot in common with d'Holbach's monumental "Système de la Nature" from 1770, which constitutes the main work of materialism and one of the most important works of natural philosophy. Tchermerzine VI:195., 1774, 0, à Londres|[Amsterdam]: S.n.|[Marc Michel Rey], 1774. Fine. S.n. [Marc Michel Rey], à Londres [Amsterdam] 1774, 2 tomes en 2 Vol. in 8 (12,5x19,5cm), (14) 397pp. et (4) 500pp. (3) ; 84pp. (3), relié. - Rare et intéressante réunion de ces deux ouvrages. Nouvelle édition du système de la nature après la rare originale de 1770, et édition originale de l'ouvrage d'Helvetius à la même date de 1774 que cette nouvelle édition de Mirabaud ; en réalité trois éditions sont parues à la même date, avec une collation différente, sans qu'on ait pu déterminer s'il y a une véritable originale. Reliure en pleine basane marbrée d'époque. Dos lisse très orné. Pièce de titre en maroquin rouge, et de tomaison en maroquin noir. Tranches rouges. Coiffes de queue arrachées. Une tâche brune sur le plat supérieur du tome I. Restauration à l'aide d'une pièce de cuir au plat supérieur du tome II. Assez bon exemplaire. L'ouvrage d'Helvetius est une exégèse et un examen du Système de la nature, l'auteur semble en avoir condensé la matière sous forme de maximes et d'assertions, le tout reposant sur un fort credo matérialiste. On sait aujourd'hui que l'ouvrage n'est peut-être pas d'Helvetius, bien qu'on y reconnaisse sa philosophie. Quant au Système de la nature de Mirabaud, il fut reçut comme une bombe dans le milieu des lettres, et finalement assez mal accueilli par les philosophes. Ce ne furent pas les thèses ouvertement matérialistes de d'Holbach qui furent condamnées mais la démonstration d'athéisme et d'anticléricalisme. [ENGLISH DESCRIPTION ON DEMAND], S.n.|[Marc Michel Rey], 1774, 5, London [Amsterdam?]: 1773., 1773. 3 Volumes in 1. 8vo. pp. 2 p.l., 210; 176; 167. with half-titles. contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt back (extremities worn). Published the same year as the first edition. Holbach was the foremost exponent of atheistic materialism in the Enlightenment. In the Politique Naturelle, La Morale Universelle, and the Système Sociale, Holbach attempted to construct a system of ethical and political values based on man’s physical nature and primary needs, as the only desirable alternative to the illusory and harmful system predicated on supernatural theology. Copies of the present work were seized by the police and it was placed on the Index on August 18, 1775. Vercruysse 1773-A5. Barbier IV 621-22. Cioranescu 34061. Quérard IV 119. Rand I 269. cfTchemerzine VI 246 (a).. 1st Edition. Hardcover., London [Amsterdam?]: 1773., 1773, 0, London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson,, 1788. The first of the great works of modern travel writing and description Second edition of the first English translation, which was issued in London the previous year. Originally published as Voyage en Syrie et en Egypt (Paris, 1787), Volney's book had a profound impact on the Western view of the region and on Napoleon in particular, who read it closely prior to his campaign in Egypt and Syria between 1798 and 1801. Volney (1757-1820) came from a noble family and as a student in Paris frequented the salon of Madame Helvétius, widow of the philosopher Claude Helvétius, and knew the Baron d'Holbach and Benjamin Franklin. On coming into his inheritance he travelled east in 1783. In Orientalism, Edward Said devotes some attention to him and remarks of his book that it makes for an "almost oppressively impersonal document" and that he "evidently saw himself as a scientist, whose job it was always to record the 'etat' of something he saw. The climax of the Voyage occurs in the second volume, an account of Islam as a religion. Volney's views were canonically hostile to Islam as a religion and as a system of political institutions; nevertheless, Napoleon found this work and Volney's Considerations sur la guerre actuel de Turcs (1788) of particular importance. For Volney after all was a canny Frenchman, and - like Chateaubriand and Lamartine a quarter-century after him – he eyed the Near Orient as a likely place for the realization of French colonial ambition. What Napoleon profited from in Volney was the enumeration, in ascending order of difficulty, of the obstacles to be faced in the Orient by any French expeditionary force". According to the distinguished American historian Ussama Makdisi, holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University, "among the most famous of the travellers [to the region] was Volney, whose influential portrait of Mount Lebanon shaped much of the romantic discourse of nineteenth-century travel writing... on the face of it, Volney's work... was simply the first of the great works of modern travel writing and description. Certainly, as Edward Said has argued, Volney's portraits were to have a tremendous impact on later voyagers and travellers who, almost to a person cite him, applaud him, and occasionally correct him. Volney was a man of the Enlightenment. His work was suffused with its vocabulary, and his humanism motivated him to travel to Asia to better understand the nature of 'despotism', under which his native France laboured". Provenance: contemporary armorial bookplate of Corbet Corbet (1752-1823), first baron Corbet of Stoke upon Tern, Shropshire; printed label of Richard Corbet of Adderley; armorial bookplate on front free endpapers of Norman Douglas Simpson (1890-1974), botanist; with pencil annotations to front free endpaper of vol. II, noting botanical references. 2 volumes, octavo (212 x 124 mm). Contemporary speckled calf professionally rebacked with the original smooth spines divided by paired gilt fillets laid down, red and green morocco twin labels, gilt geometrical edge roll, grey-brown speckled edges. With 2 engraved folding maps (Egypt and Syria) and 3 folding plates (plan of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbek, view of the same, view of Palmyra). Labels just a little chipped, some old craquelure and marks to spines, paper flaw in margin of E3 (vol. I), closed tear at foot of 2A (vol. II), closed tear into plan of Baalbek neatly repaired. A clean, generously margined copy that presents well. ESTC T12218; Ussama Makdisi, The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon, 2000; Edward Said, Orientalism, 1978., 1788, 0<