Travels in the Levant.
Le Bruyn, Cornelius.
Voyage au Levant. "
Voyage Au Levant, C'est. à-dire, Dans les Principaux Endroits de L'Asie Mineur, Dans les Isles de Chio, Rhodes & Chypre &c...." Paris Chez Guilliame Cavalier, Rue St. Jaques àla Fleur de Lys d'Or. 1714
Second French edition.
Folio : ( 335x215mm); pp[xii] + 408 + [6]
Engraved allegorical frontispiece by R du Val; title in red & black. Lacking the portrait of the author. Large folding map of "Mare Mediterraneum" and 210 numbered copper engravings plates on 54 single leaves, 26 double-page plates mounted on guards, and 17 large folding multi -page panoramas mounted on guards, 23 engraved vignettes in the text plus 3 engraved insriptions. Views by Cornelis de Bruyn, engraved by H. van Krooneveld, c.1699.
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Starting out from Hague, Flemish traveller and artist Cornelis de Bruyn (1652-1727) journeyed through the East from 1674 to 1693. In his second long journey (which lasted from 1701 till 1708) he travelled to Persia and Moscow and finally reached East India. Hundreds of drawings illustrate De Bruyn's chronicles, which have thus rightly earned the reputation of two of the most beautiful travel accounts of all time. Drawings were made by De Bruyn himself – "that was the chief aim of my travels", he wrote, who also supervised the etching of the various views. His chronicle was first published in Flemish and the first French edition of this marvellous work came out in Delft in 1700. According to De Bruyn's own testimony, in his journey throughout the East he carried with him the chronicles of P. Della Valle, J. Thevenot, Ol. Dapper, J.J. Grelot and T. Smith.
The author arrived to Smyrna from Sicily, visited Ephesus and continued on to Magnesia and finally Istanbul. He stayed in this city for a year and a half; in his chronicle he provides a description of the splendid capital and of the coasts of Bosporus as well. On 1st July 1680 he crossed the Dardanelles by boat. He described the Troy region and in February 1681 departed again from Smyrna to Chios, where he stayed for some time. He called this last island "paradise". De Bruyn then travelled in the east Mediterranean, first to Cos and Rodos, of which he gave a description, then to Egypt and from there to the Holy Land and Syria. On his return trip, he visited Cyprus. The rich illustrations of his work made it extremely popular. He is the first traveller to have depicted the interior of the Pyramids in Egypt, Palmyra in Syria and Persepolis in Iran, as well as everyday snapshots of his journey."[ Ioli Vingopoulou (eng.travelogues.gr Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation)] The fine multi-plate, folded panoramas are: Smyrna [ 1000x298mm]; Constantinople [1920x300mm]; 2 of the Bosphorus [each 1000x300mm] ; Chios [1250x304mm]; 2 of Rhodes[640x230mm & 635x228mm]; Tyre [635x250mm];
2 of Alexandria [650x303mm & 620x235mm]; Rama [630x230mm]; Bethlehem [632x250mm]; Jerusalem [1250x305mm]. Aleppo [1030x300mm]; Palmyra [640x277mm]; Sattalia [626x235mm] and Haselaar[620x303mm]
The costume plates mainly concentrate on the ornate headdresses of female Turks and Greeks.
Map of the Mediterranean, which is often lacking, folded ; upper margin short[3-4mm]. Blindstamped vellum over boards; front joint cracked; stain to front board; old ink bibliographical note to front free end paper.
Crisp; lightly toned; a few spots to plates; folded panoramas with some creasing, and edges slightly chipped. Generally good.
The first French edition was published in Delft 1700 a translation of the original DUTCH EDITION OF TWO YEARS PREVIOUSLY in 1698.
DEBRUIN (or de Bruyn), CORNELIS, also known as Corneille Le Brun or Le Bruyn (b. the Hague 1652, d. Utrecht 1726 or 1727),
Best known as a landscape artist, Le Bryun traveled widely from a young age to Vienna, on to Rome then to Smyrna, Constantinople, Egypt, Jerusalem, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. (This first travel was financed by Nicolas Witsen, author, cartographer and burgomaster Of Amsterdam)
Everywhere he went Le Bruyn depicted the scenes around him, he was especially interested in places of antiquity or historic interest, and his are the first images of the interior of a pyramids and Jerusalem to be widely available to a Westerners. "I want to offer accurate pictures of those cities, towns, and buildings that I have visited, " he wrote, "and without recklessness I can claim to have done something that no one has done before" (reported by the New York society Library). After an eight-years in Venice, Le Bruyn returned to The Hague in 1693.
Blackmer/ Navari:225; Blackmer/Sotheby's 47; Lipperheide:546;Contominas 100, Weber, II, 402, Brunet, III, f. 911, Cobham & Jeffery, p. 7, Rohricht 1184, Zacharakis 745 335 by 215mm (13¼ by 8½ inches).
ref: 2871
€10000