Greek Church.

Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de. After Claude Aubriet. Costumes of the Greek Church. Amsterdam. Janssoons van Waesberge. 1737
4 Copper engraved illustrations of the dress of Greek priests, + 2 illustrations of items associated with the church: a form of bell for calling the monks to prayer, and the tool used to collect ladanam for incense.
from Tournefort's "Beschryving van eene Reize naar de Levant" ["Relation D'Un Voyage du Levant"] 1737 [5th edition] large 4to. The costumes are each set in a page of Dutch text with text to verso; the further illustrations are blank to verso. The illustrations are contained within the chapter on "The present state of the Greek Church" Dark impression, with wide margins.

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort:"Relation D'Un Voyage au Levant" was first published, postumously, in Paris in 1717 [4to]; there was another edition published the same year in Lyons [8vo]. The following year, 1818 two more editions were published; in Amsterdam [in the original French] [4to], and in London, translated in to English [8vo].
In 1737 an edition was published in Dutch, in Amsterdam [4to], followed in 1741 by a second English edition. The last edition was published in German in 1776 [8vo].
The plates, after the sketches and paintings of Claude Aubriet, therefore appear in a number of formats depending upon the edition.


Joseph Pitton de Tournefort [ 1656-1708] was primarily a Botanist, he visited the Levant in the years 1700 -1702, at the command of Louis XIV; He was expressly commanded to go overland so that he could confirm the accuracy of the maps and reports the King was receiving from his ambassadors to the Caliphs of Alexandria & Constantinople. He was paticularly to observe the peoples, towns, cities, produce and manufacturing of the countries through which he travelled. Originally he was to travel through as far as Ethiopia via Eygypt, but he turned back early, on hearing reports of the Plague. He was accompanied on the Voyage by the artist Claude Aubriet.
Blackmer/Navari 1318[1st edition]. 100 by 160mm (4 by 6¼ inches) costumes. 169x114mm, bell, 165x114mm tool.   ref: 1140  €100