8vo. 302 pp., [1], 2 maps, 12 plates, original illustrated wrappers, appendix, biblio, index, copy clean & in very good condition, Librairie Droz, Geneva, 2000.

Synopsis

The Ottoman Empire exerts an unequalled fascination on Westerners of the Renaissance. The zoological curiosities, the topography of Jerusalem or Constantinople, the daily life of the Turks, their veiled women and their mysterious Sultans.
Although the author is very attentive to the historical context and geographical knowledge being formed, the purpose of his study is not the analysis of the information collected and the exchanges made by the travellers, but rather the gaze that these concern the oriental world and the writing practices by which they “construct” space and exotic objects. Articulated on the opposition between literary imitation and description of reality, the research is presented in two parts: one relates to references to the already-written, to the ravel literature available before the departure of the travellers, the other on the modes of writing by which the observed beings and customs are given to understand. [L’Homme 163, juillet-septembre 2002, De la légende au mythe, Claude Reichler].