12mo. Volume I & II: 20 pp., xxxi, 119 pp., [1] / 225 pp., [1] / Volume III: 251 pp., [1] / Volume IV: 282 pp., [1] / Volume V: 231 pp., [1] / Volume VI: 235 pp., half-titles, 6 engraved frontispieces, +66 engraved plates, contemporary rubbed half-calf, title gilt on raised spine, upper edges gilt, marbled endpaper, slightly browned & stained, from the library of the diplomat Stephanos Karatheodores (1836-1907; bookplate in all volumes), Nepveu, Paris, first edition, 1812.

Synopsis

First edition, of this celebrated work on Turkish costume and culture, illustrated with engraved plates of high quality; these include views of towns, monuments, musical instruments costumes, Ottoman Scenes, and much more. Lord Byron, in a letter to Thomas Moore (August 28, 1813), wrote: “If you want any more books, there is Castellan’s Moeurs des Ottomans, the best compendium of the kind I ever met with, in six small tomes.”
Castellan (1772-1838) was a noted painter, engraver and architect who, after the Revolution, embarked on a lengthy tour through the Ottoman Empire; his keen eye and skilled hand made him well-equipped to produce a detailed illustrated record of the sights. Hoefer (IX, col. 92) gives a long description of Castellans’ life and works, with special emphasis on the culture, customs, manners and costumes of the Ottomans. It is interesting to observe that Cox, the standard authority on the literature of travel, failed to include the present work in his massive three-volume bibliography of that subject; Hoefer quotes Byron as saying: “Never go to Turkey without having Castellan in your pocket.”
from Blackmer:…”First Edition, translated into German at Leipzig in 1815 in 3 vols., 8 vo., and into English in 1821, as Turkey in Shoberl’s series “The World in Miniature”. Note that some copies have the word ‘eclaircissements’ on the title spelled ‘eclaircissements’. The plates are mostly reduced versions of Dalvimart’s plates from the Costume of Turkey (q.v.). These depict the costume of the functionaries of the Ottoman Court; there are also illustrations of arms, standards and other objects as well as an interesting section on music and dance.”…
Bibliographic references: Atabey 204 – Colas 1, 545 – Querard II, 75; Brunet I, 1226; Blackmer 300 – Lipperheide 1427; Hiler 143.