Small 8vo. 140 pp., engraved title page with a vignette, 1 folding map at rear, hard back binding, rubbed round edges, title page soiled and neatly repaired, otherwise copy in good condition, London, no publisher, first edition, 1788.

Synopsis

Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney (1757 – 1820) was a French philosopher, abolitionist, writer, orientalist, and politician. He was at first surnamed Boisgirais after his father’s estate, but afterwards assumed the name of Volney.
This work, on the Russo-Turkish war of 1787, has a distinctly pro-Russian bias, and Voney anticipates keenly the breaking-up of the Ottoman Empire. It further discusses the Ottoman relations with France, the problem of the Ottoman Egypt, and the Balkans. Volney, traveller and philosopher, first left for the Ottoman Empire in 1782, and learnt Arabic in a monastery in the Lebanese mountains. He spent four years studying the region, its culture and people, the result of which was his work ‘Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie’ (1787). Volney was rewarded for his efforts by Catherine the Great, who presented him with a gold medal. Volney’s work was answered later in 1788 by the French diplomat Claude Charles de Peyssonnel, who supported the Ottoman Empire and looked forward to its continuation after reform. Peyssonnel, a French diplomat, served as consul at Smyrna. He follows the policy of Vergennes, who looked forward to the continuation of the Ottoman Empire based on a policy of reform.
Bibliographic references: Atabey 1304; Weller, printing locations II, 235; Pohler II, 103; Cioranescu 63755th; Hoefer XLVI , 348.