12mo. Volume I: xxxv, 195 pp. / Volume II: 204 pp. / Volume III: 173 pp. / Volume IV: 143 pp. original hard back boards, slightly soiled & worn, some pencil underlining, weak spine, lacking front endpaper of volume II, previous owner’s initials on title pages, published by Dufour & Roux, Maastricht, second edition, 1785.

Synopsis

The memoirs of a Hungarian baron in the French service rose to high office at Istanbul in the eighteenth century.
Baron François de Tott (1733-1793), a Hungarian baron in the French service, went to Istanbul in 1755 for the first time as a member of the entourage of the Ambassador de Vergennes. He remained in Turkey until 1763. His knowledge of the language and the customs of the Turks and his practical approach to political and commercial relations with the East won Tott the post of French Consul in the Crimea in 1767. He returned to Istanbul in 1769 under orders to reorganise the army and the navy as well as to fortify the banks of the Black Sea. Appointed as general inspector of the Consulates of the Levant in 1776, he undertook a tour of inspections which lasted until 1778.
This is the second edition, (the first appeared in Amsterdam in 1784 in 4 parts in 8vo), translated into English (1785), Danish, German, Dutch, and Swedish. Its success was due to the amount and novelty of information on the history, customs and institutions of the Turks. Up to that time, the literature available on the subject was mainly designed to increase the prejudices of the West against the Ottoman Empire rather than giving a fair account of its history. References: Blackmer 1667 for 1785 edition, Brunet V, 901. Chatzipanagioti-Sangmeister 1132; Weber II, 534..
Provenance: from the Collection of Henry W. Schaefer.
Bibliographic references: BL; Blackmer 1667 (Second edition of the original French, Amsterdam 1785)..