12mo. [14], 450 pp., contemporary brown full-calf, slightly worn round edges, title gilt and decoration on raised spine, title vignette, lower corner of first few pages stained, some foxing, spine cracked with small piece missing at the top, end papers soiled, numbers in ink on last page and in pencil on back fly leaves, inscription “Dubois 1818” on title page and pages 245 & 450, Edme Couterot, Paris, first edition, 1675.

Synopsis

A Rare First French edition, dedicated to the King and translated by the author from his original Italian version, which had appeared the previous year (in 1674). This survey of Ottoman government, customs, and religion originally published in Italian as Specchio . . . della Turchia in 1674. This present work is much expanded from the former, to illustrate “the wrong working of the Ottoman Empire”. Febure was a missionary and Orientalist who by his own account spent 18 years wandering in the Levant. He had taken the religious name Guistiniano when he joined the Capuchin Order.
Bibliographic reference: Blackmer 577.