Beschreibung:

BELON, PIERRE Les observations de plusieurs singularitez & choses memorables, trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Iudée, Egypte, Arabie, & autres pays estranges, redigées en trois livres. Paris: Benoit Prevost for Gilles Corrozet and Guillaume Cavellat, 1555 3 parts in one volume, 8vo (221 x 156mm.), title with woodcut border, numerous woodcut illustrations, privilege leaf at end, contemporary sprinkled calf, ink inscriptions concerning the author and manuscript index of birds to front free endpapers, lacking folding woodcut view of Sinai (supplied in facsimile), occasional minor staining, rebacked retaining original spine, corners repaired Pierre Belon spent some three years in the Levant from 1546 to 1549. He was inspired by the desire to see the medicinal herbs and plants about which he read, but his extensive travels throughout the eastern Mediterranean resulted in observations much more than merely botanical: this remarkable work discusses antiquities, customs and manners as well as the natural history of the regions visited. He was one of the first Europeans to visit and describe Baalbek. "His [Observations] was the most documented account of the Levant which had appeared up to that time. Of importance is his of Cairo after 30 years of Turkish occupation" (Blackmer). LITERATURE:Nissen ZBI 304; cf. Blackmer 115 PROVENANCE:C. le Riche, early inscription on title-page; Claude Le Duc, ownership inscriptions dated 1712 and 1727; W.H. Mullens, armorial bookplate