Details
SHAW, Thomas (1694-1757). Travels or Observations relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant. Oxford: Stephen Niblett, 1738.
2o (349 x 221 mm.), half title, title printed in red and black with vignette, 11 engraved maps (4 folding), 20 engaved plates (one double-page, one folding) and 5 engraved vignettes by H. Gravelot after C. Frederick, and several engraved initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf (rebacked, some rubbing to edges). Provenance: Lord Rivers (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. "Thomas Shaw, who travelled in North Africa, Egypt, the Sinai desert, Palestine and Syria in the 1720s, can in many respects be considered the precursor of later and enlightened writers on the Arab world such as the Russell brothers and John Lewis Burckhardt. His aim to provide a 'natural history,' especially of Algeria, where he was appointed chaplain to the factory of English merchants in 1720 and where he spent thirteen years, the valuable information -- botanical, zoological and topographical -- which his Travels contain, his habit of giving a number of toponyms in Arabic characters, the care he took to copy Roman inscriptions in North Africa and hieroglyphics in Egypt, and finally, the exceptionally good plates and maps in his work, all entitled Shaw to a place among the most observant and reliable visitors to the east" (Hamilton Europe and the Arab World p. 40). Cox I, 377; Nissen ZBI 3839; Roehricht 1352.
2o (349 x 221 mm.), half title, title printed in red and black with vignette, 11 engraved maps (4 folding), 20 engaved plates (one double-page, one folding) and 5 engraved vignettes by H. Gravelot after C. Frederick, and several engraved initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf (rebacked, some rubbing to edges). Provenance: Lord Rivers (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. "Thomas Shaw, who travelled in North Africa, Egypt, the Sinai desert, Palestine and Syria in the 1720s, can in many respects be considered the precursor of later and enlightened writers on the Arab world such as the Russell brothers and John Lewis Burckhardt. His aim to provide a 'natural history,' especially of Algeria, where he was appointed chaplain to the factory of English merchants in 1720 and where he spent thirteen years, the valuable information -- botanical, zoological and topographical -- which his Travels contain, his habit of giving a number of toponyms in Arabic characters, the care he took to copy Roman inscriptions in North Africa and hieroglyphics in Egypt, and finally, the exceptionally good plates and maps in his work, all entitled Shaw to a place among the most observant and reliable visitors to the east" (Hamilton Europe and the Arab World p. 40). Cox I, 377; Nissen ZBI 3839; Roehricht 1352.
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