4to. Volume I: xxiv, 446 pp., xxiii appendix, [1 errata], 4 steel engraved folding plates, 1 plan / Volume II: vii, 430 pp., + xxxiv appendix, [25 index], [1 errata], 15 plates numbered I-XVI (plates 1 and 2 on one page), of which 2 are folding, modern black half morocco, marbled sides, red morocco lettering pieces, plates with stamp of Edin. S.S. Library, plates laid down on linen, title laid down, some spotting and occasional dust-soiling, new endpapers, second edition, revised, enlarged, and illustrated with notes by Patrick Russell, Printed for G. G. & J. Robinson, London, 1794.

Synopsis

Alexander Russell was a physician in the British factory in Aleppo from 1740 to 1753. He learned to speak Arabic fluently and gained great influence with the Pasha and the natives. His work on Aleppo is fascinating, ‘one of the most complete pictures of Eastern manners extant’ according to Pinkerton in his “Travels”. Russell returned to London in 1755, and the next year saw the first edition of his work. His brother Patrick, who eventually took over as the physician in the English factory, had joined him in Aleppo in 1750. Patrick Russell revised and enlarged the original work in a later edition. The section on the domestic life of the Turk was much expanded and new plates were added. The illustrations in this work are very handsome; the botanical plates are by G.D. Ehret; the unsigned animal plates are presumed to be by Russell himself.
Bibliographic references: Blackmer 1458; Rohricht, 1460.