12mo. Volume I: [6], 233 pp., / Volume II: 246 pp., / Volume III: 215 pp., / Volume IV: 212 pp., / Volume V: 216 pp., Volumes IV & V bound together, title engraved vignettes, Ex-Libris Charles Kettaneh with his bookplate verso front endpapers, contemporary full calf, title gilt on decorated & raised spine, marbled endpapers, all edges red, head and tail wood engravings, spine extremities lightly cracked, occasional minor spotting in volume 5, otherwise set in very good condition, chez Henry van Bulderen, Marchand Libraire, La Haye, second edition, 1730.

Synopsis

Late 17th century work written in the spirit of the Orientalist vision then inspired by Racine’s “Bajazet”.
This book, attributed to the Abbot Esprit, is the life story of King Sapor (Shapur) and his contemporaries such as the Roman Caesar Delmatius. It recounts the many wars between the Roman Empire and Sapor and different matrimonial alliances; it also narrates the construction of many Persian Roman-inspired cities and talks of Sapor’s great tolerance of various religions.
The first edition of the book appeared in Paris at Barbin in 1668. This is a unique second edition of this rare historical novel, published on the same date as the edition of Le Clerc in Paris.