Valle (Pietro della) The Travels...into East-India and Arabia Deserta, first edition in English, translated by George Havers, initial imprimatur leaf, double-page engraved map and 3 plates on 2 sheets, some water-staining, contemporary calf, joints and corners worn, folio, [Wing V48A; cf. Blackmer 1712 and Atabey 1269 (both French editions)], Printed by J. Macock, for Henry Herringman, 1665.

⁂ Della Valle's text comprises 54 letters written to the Neapolitan physician Mario Schipano during his twelve years of travels. He left Venice in 1614 on a pilgrimage to Palestine, proceeding to Damascus and Aleppo, crossing Mesopotamia to Baghdad, and into Persia where he married the Circassian Sitti Maani, who accompanied him on his further travels. In Persia, he sojourned at the court of Shah Abas, but his wife died at Persepolis in 1622. His travels then took him further east to the coast of India, and from Goa to Muscat, thence to Aleppo by way of Basra, finally reaching Rome in 1626. The translation from the Italian original of 1650-63 is by Sir Thomas Roe. There were three different imprints in 1665, for J. Martin and J. Allestry, for John Place and for Henry Herringham.