12mo. [4], 164 pp., woodcut device on title page, woodcut head piece and initial, half title page: 'Voyage de la Terre Sainte', contemporary full calf, worn round edges, Lacking map, paper slightly browned, scattered foxing, some worming & cuts on margins not affecting text, Chez Antoine Dezallier, Paris, first edition, 1688.

Synopsis

First and only edition. Pierre de la Vergne born into a Huguenot family of Languedoc. He converted to Catholicism at the age of twenty. To divert him from monastic life, to which he was inclined, he was allowed to travel to the Holy Land. On his return, he was given assignments for the conversion of the Huguenots in the south of France. He was the spiritual guide of the Princess of Conti and Madame de Grignan. The Marquise de Sevigne judged him, but he refused to take charge of her soul. His travelogue contains descriptions of Malta, Lebanon, Tripoli, Mount Carmel, Jerusalem, and the various Palestinian sites, as well as Cyprus. He does not write much about the sacred sites of the area, as the political insecurity and the various power struggles between Christians and Ottoman’s deemed those visits perilous. Even his return trip by sea was dangerous. Pilgrims at the time (under Louis XIV) had to obtain special permits from their Bishops or the lieutenant General of his area, to go the Holy Land. For fear of an exodus of the Protestants camouflaged as a pilgrimage. (Bourgeois et André, Les Sources de l’histoire de France. XVIIe siècle I, n° 525).
Bibliographic references: Barbier IV, 234; Hage Chahine 4855; Rohricht p. 261; Tobler 104; Not in Chadenat.