Folio. 14 pp., + unpaginated leaves [312], 5 engraved plates hors text, later half-calf with marbled boards, new endpapers, title gilt on raised spine, tailpieces, bookplate of Richard Benyon Esq. verso front cover, title page soiled with repaired tear but without any loss, light damp stain to lower margins not affecting text, browning to last couple of leaves, otherwise copy in good condition, G. Parker, London, first edition, 1733.

Synopsis

Aaron Hill visited the Levant as a youth aged 15, and stayed with his relative, Lord Paget, the then ambassador in Constantinople, from 1700 until 1703.
Firs edition was published in 1709. Second edition was printed in 1710 by J. Mayo, who bought the unsold sheets of the first edition, added a new title, substituted his own preface for Hill’s and filled in space with commendatory verse before continuing the use of the original sheets for the list of subscribers etc. Hill was 24 years old when he published his account of the Ottoman Empire. He travelled extensively, returning to London in 1703 at the age of 18. Spencer calls this book ‘one of the curiosities of literature’ for the crassness and ignorance it displays. Hill afterwards wrote poetry and drama and entered into a long correspondence with the Pope. The first half of this work is concerned with the history and customs of the Turks, but the later half consists of chapters on Greece, the islands of the Aegean Sea, Egypt (including chapters on the natural history of Egypt and the pyramids), Palestine, and five chapters on Arabia, the Arabs and the Red Sea region; there is also a chapter discussing pilgrimage to Mekkah and Medinah, with a description of the tomb of the Prophet.
It should be noted that number of plates differs from one edition to another. For example the first edition of 1709 contains only one plates a portrait of the author as frontispiece, while this edition (1733) contains five plates.
Bibliographic references: Blackmer 817 for second edition; Atabey 571 for first edition.