Middle East.- Niebuhr (Carsten) Description de l'Arabie, second edition in French, half-title, engraved vignette title, 25 fine engraved maps and plates by Van der Meer, some folding including a large map of Yemen hand-coloured in outline and 2 folding plates of Arabic scripts with partial hand-colouring indicating vowel sounds, folding letterpress table, without errata leaf at end, [cf.Atabey 873, first edition], 1774 § Michaélis (Johann David) Recueil de Questions proposées à une Société de Savants qui par ordre de Sa Majesté Danoise font le Voyage de l'Arabie, second edition in French, small ink stain to head of A2, 1774, together 2 vol., both with contemporary book-label of T.D.Acland 1807, uniform contemporary calf, gilt, rubbed, rebacked preserving old gilt spine, new red morocco labels (volumes misnumbered), corners a little worn, 4to, Amsterdam, S.J.Baalde and Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven

⁂ Account of the infamous Royal Danish scientific expedition to Arabia in 1761-67 on which all but Niebuhr died. It is the first work by a European to appraise Arabia as a whole and the plates depict the breadth of Arabian culture from food to temples. The maps also were notable for their accuracy: the map of Yemen was the first of the country and remained the standard for two centuries, and the map of the Persian Gulf was the most accurate to date and the first to include Kuwait.

Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 11th Baronet, FRS (1809-98), politician and educational reformer.