Le Bruyn, Cornelius | First edition in French of this classic of Middle Eastern travel

Le Bruyn, Cornelius
Voyage au Levant, c'est à dire dans les principaux endroits de l'Asie Mineure dans les Isles de Chio, de Rhodes, de Chypres &c. De même que dans les plus considerables villes d'Egypte, de Syrie, et de la Terre Sainte ... Traduit du Flamand. Delft: chez Henri de Kroonevelt, 1700

Folio. Engraved portrait of Le Brun by G. Valck after Sir Godfrey Kneller, emblematic additional engraved title, folding engraved map, 97 engraved plates including folding panoramas, 24 engraved illustrations. Expertly bound to style in period mottled calf, spine with raised bands in six compartments, red morocco lettering piece in the second, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers.

First edition in French of this classic of Middle Eastern travel, with striking panoramic views

In his first expedition of 1674, Dutch traveler Cornelius Le Bruyn remained in the Levant for seven years. On his return, he published his Voyages au Levant in Dutch in 1698, in French in 1700 (as here), and in English in 1702. The text is made up of a mixture first-hand observations and information drawn from other sources, but the impressive images are all by the talented Le Bruyn.

"Bruyn, painter and traveller, left Holland in 1674 to travel through Europe and the Levant. He returned to Italy in 1685 and settled in Venice, returning to Holland in 1693. [He was best known as a landscape artist, and the] ... numerous plates ...[include] folding panoramas of Alexandria, Sattalia, Constantinople, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Chios, and double page plates of Constantinople and Scutari. Some of the plates consist of single views of Tyre, Aleppo, Palmyra and other subjects, others contain two or three or four views, costumes, plans [on a single sheet]" (Atabey I:74).

The success of the published account of this expedition engendered a second expedition by Le Bruyn across Russia and Persia and to India and Java between 1701 and 1707.

REFERENCE
Cf. Atabey 159, 160 (other editions); cf. Blackmer 225 (1714 edition); Brunet III:911; Graesse I:552; cf. Lipperheide 546 (1714 edition); cf. Rohricht 1184 (1714 edition); Howgego B177

Condition Report:
Condition as described in catalogue entry.