12mo. Volume I: Voyage de L'Arabie Heureuse, par l'Ocean Oriental, & le Detroit de la Mer Rouge. Fait par les François pour la premiére fois, dans les années 1708, 1709 & 1710. Avec la relation particuliére d'un Voyage du Port de Moka a la Cour du Roi d'Yemen: [14], 403 pp., [14], 3 folding engraved plates of coffee plants, folding engraved map of southern Arabia and Yemen, Andre Cailleau, Paris, 1716 / Volume II: Voyage fait par ordre du Roy Louis XIV dans la Palestine, vers le Grand Emir, chef des princes arabes du désert, connus sous le nom de bédouins ou d'arabes scénites, qui se disent la vraie postérité d'Ismaël fils d'Abraham. Avec la description générale de l'Arabie, faite par le sultan Ismaël Abulfeda...: [32], 316 pp., + Description General de l’Arabie: xiv, 76 pp., [16], including 4-leaf bookseller''s catalogue at end, 4 engraved plates, of which one folding, Andre Cailleau, Paris, 1717 / Volumes III & IV: Voyage de Syrie et du Mont-Liban: [12], 347 pp., [1] / [2], 321 pp., [3], 8 engraved plates, 3 folding (first with minor repair on verso, second with short clean tear), folding engraved map, André Cailleau, Paris, 1722. Late 18th / early 19th century uniform tree sheep gilt, lightly rubbed, marbled endpapers and outer edges, hinges slightly weak, spine ends of volumes 1 & 3 chipped, signs of worming to volume 1 spine, end leaves browned, scattered marginal spotting and intermittent minor damp staining along top edges, blank upper outer corners of volume 1 slightly gnawed, Andre Cailleau, Paris, 1716-1720.

Synopsis

First edition of La Roque”s writings on the Middle East; issue of the first work with title dated 1716. The first book describes French expeditions to the Red Sea and concludes with a lengthy description of the cultivation and consumption of coffee in southern Arabia, an important early work on the subject. The second, edited by La Roque from a manuscript by Laurent d”Arvieux, concerns a French mission to Palestine and contains a French translation of the section on Arabia from the early 14th-century geography of Abu l-Fida. The third deals with the topography, inhabitants, religions, and antiquities of Lebanon.
Jean de La Roque (1661-1743) was born in Marseilles, he studied Oriental languages, and travelled a few times to the Levant himself, and served apparently as correspondent for his father’s newspaper, the Mercure at Trevoux, north of Lyon.
Bibliographic References: Hogarth, The Penetration of Arabia, pages 28-31; Sarton III, 793-99; Cox 1, 222; Aboussouan 512; Muller, Kaffee S.180; Gay 3680; Bitting 274.