4to. xvi, 595 pp., [1], folding engraved & heavily foxed frontispiece, 16 hand coloured aquatint plates, 4 engraved plates, 2 maps of which 1 folding and 1 colour, 1 folding plate of “A Turkish Firman or Passport” (has a repaired tear about 18 cm long without any loss), contemporary half calf, slightly rubbed and re-backed retaining old spine, index, tables, folding map laid down & soiled (it has a mall marginal tear about 10 cm without any loss), the other map cropped, previous owner’s name inscribed verso front cover, occasional staining & spotting, printed for Richard Phillips, London, first edition, 1803.

Synopsis

First Edition. A German version appeared at Leipzig in 1804. Wittman was a member of the British military mission which joined the Turkish forces at Constatinople in 1799 and travelled through Syria to Egypt to take part in the campaign against the French. (Leake, Hamilton and Hammer- Purgstall were also members of the mission.) The work is dedicated to Elgin. Plates no. viii (Jaffa) and xix ( Fort Julian) are engraved after drawings by Spilsbury whose Picturesque Scenery of the Holy Land also appeared in 1803. The costume plates, unsigned, are mostly of soldiers and military functionaries, several of these plates were later used by the publisher Mclean in his Military Costumes of Turkey.
“Wittman was a member of the British military mission which joined the Turkish forces at Constantinople in 1799 and travelled overland to Egypt to take part in the campaign against the French. The Costume plates, unsigned, are mostly of soldiers and military functionaries. Several of these plates were later used by the publisher McLean in his Military Costume of Turkey.”(Blackmer).
Bibliographic references: Blackmer 1832; Not in Abbey; Weber II 647; Not in Colas; Rohricht 1597; Tobler p. 136; Lipperheide 1426; Cobham-Jeffery p.65; Contominas 807; Koç, Constantinople I, 182.