Voyage dans la Palestine vers le Grand Émir, chef des princes arabes du désert, connus sous le nom de bédouïns, ou d'Arabes scenites. LA ROQUE, Jean de, & Laurent d'Arvieux.

Pirated Amsterdam edition, published a year after the original Paris edition of 1717. This work was compiled by Jean de La Roque from the manuscripts of Laurent d'Arvieux, a 17th-century French traveller and diplomat in the Levant. It is divided into two parts: d'Arvieux's journey through the Arabian Desert, and his observations on local Arab customs associated with Sultan Ismael Abulfeda. Laurent d'Arvieux (1635-1702) spent many years in the Middle East. Between 1653 and 1665, he lived in Sidon with his cousin Bertandie, a merchant, and was later appointed French consul in Aleppo in 1679. In his later years, he likely met La Roque, himself the son of a merchant, in Marseille. La Roque had long shown interest in d'Arvieux, even making inquiries about him with the French chaplain in Sidon during an expedition in 1688-9. It was through d'Arvieux's friend, the orientalist and first French translator of The Thousand and One Nights, Antoine Galland, that La Roque obtained the manuscript on which this publication is based. Blackmer 50; Weber II 337. Duodecimo (154 mm x 92 mm), pp. [2], 342, [8]. Engraved frontispiece by Jan Wandelaar and 4 plates, including a fold-out view of the Arab camp on Mount Carmel, tables, headpieces. Mid-19th-century calf, rebacked with original spine laid down, spine lettered in gilt, raised bands, compartments decorated in gilt, covers ruled in blind, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers and edges, green silk bookmarker, binder's stamp of Petit (successor to Simier) on front free endpaper verso. Spine ends mildly nicked, corners rubbed, discreet joint repairs but holding firm, minor cockling to front free endpaper, a couple of spots to frontispiece and verso. A very good copy.