Levant.- Pococke (Richard) A Description of the East, and some other Countries, 3 parts in 2 vol., first edition, 3 titles with engraved vignettes, engraved dedication to the Earl of Chesterfield in vol. 2, 178 engraved maps, plans, and plates, 14 folding, including 12 botanical plates by G.D. Ehret, some light foxing or staining and offsetting, unobtrusive old library blind-stamps to titles, contemporary diced russia with ornamental borders incorporating flowers and crowns tooled in gilt, rubbed and a little marked, corners slightly bumped and worn, lower cover of vol.2 worn at edge, rebacked, red morocco labels, [Atabey 965; Blackmer 1323], folio, printed for the Author, by W.Bowyer, sold by J. & P.Knapton [& others], 1743-45.

⁂ One of the most important eighteenth-century accounts of the Near East, sweeping in scope and richly illustrated with drawings, plans, and maps, depicting sites from Egypt, the Holy Land, Crete, Cyprus, and Turkey. Richard Pococke (1704-1765) combined a successful ecclesiastical career in the Church of Ireland with a lust for travel. He went on two Grand Tours, the first to France and Italy in 1733-4, the second from 1737 to 1741 being the journey described in this work. He visited the Near East, in particular Egypt to which the entire first volume is dedicated, going through Palestine, Syria, and Iraq, before returning through Greece and the Alps, making him also one of the first Alpine travellers. Among other things, he was one of the few European travellers to give an account of the origins of the medieval Arabic document, the Achtiname of Muhammad, which claims that Muhammad had personally confirmed a grant of protection and other privileges to the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt.