4to. xviii, [2], 513 pp., [1], 36 copper engraved maps and plates, including 15 maps of which 7 are folding and 22 woodcut plates of which 6 are folding, 1 music sheet, divisional half-titles, engraved head & tail pieces, text illustrations with cuts by H. Gravilot , and a Peutinger table, later half-calf with marbled boards, new binding, title gilt on raised spine, index, from the Library of Papadopoulos, A. Millar and W. Sandby, London, second edition with great improvements, 1757.

Synopsis

Thomas Shaw was chaplain to the English factory in Algiers, Algeria from 1722 to 1733. During this period he travelled to Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, Cyprus and most of North Africa, and provided much material on Tunis and Algeria. “These travels have been universally esteemed, not only for their accuracy and fidelity, but on account of the illustrations they contain of natural history, of the classic authors, and especially of the Scriptures.” (Lowndes). A supplement was published in 1746. In 1740 he was elected Principal of Edmund Hall and later Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford. Shaw’s Travels has been praised by Dibdin and others. It is especially esteemed for its botanical and zoological plates, in addition to the information Shaw imparts on the antiquities, geology and geography of the areas he visited. The appendix includes catalogues of plants and animals of Barbary, Egypt and Arabia. ‘A noble example of typography’.
A section on Lebanon is included in the description of the Levant. More than 640 species of plants are described. There is also a list of the rare plants of Barbary, Egypt and Arabia. The plates include natural history, botany, animals and antiquities. His geological views were enlightened for his time, and his conjectures on the subject of the pyramids have been fully confirmed by later investigators. This edition has more plates and includes the material in the supplement of 1756 that was not in the first edition of 1738. There is a section on plants, birds, animals, etc. he collected.
Bibliographic references: Blackmer, 1533; Weber 496; Röhricht, 1352; Tobler, p. 123 (all for first edition 1738); Lowndes II, 2372; Hilmy II, 233.