![KATIB CELEBI (Mustafa ibn Abd Allah, aka Hacci Halife, 1609-1657). Tuhfet ül-kibâr fî esfâr il-bihâr [Concerning Naval Expeditions.] Istanbul: Ibrahim Müteferrika, 1141 [1728-29].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/NYR/2013_NYR_02800_0566_000(katib_celebi_tuhfet_ul-kibar_fi_esfar_il-bihar_concerning_naval_expedi081818).jpg?w=1)
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KATIB CELEBI (Mustafa ibn Abd Allah, aka Hacci Halife, 1609-1657). Tuhfet ül-kibâr fî esfâr il-bihâr [Concerning Naval Expeditions.] Istanbul: Ibrahim Müteferrika, 1141 [1728-29].
Small 2o (261 x 176 mm). 84 leaves, first text leaf misbound after fol.5. Foliated: 7 leaves preliminaries, 75 leaves text, 2 leaves index. 25 lines, text printed within single rule border. Four hand-colored double-page engraved maps and one hand-colored double-page engraved plate of the mariner's compass, heightened with gold. (One leaf with fore-margin renewed.) Contemporary Italian vellum, coat-of-arms of the Marini family blindstamped at the center of both covers, gilt-lettered morocco spine label. Provenance: Gaetano Marini (1740-1815), Italian antiquary and curator of the Vatican Library (binding; note in his hand mounted on pastedown providing bibliographical data and stating that the work includes a treatise on measuring geographical distance); acquired from Jake Zeitlin, 1972.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST TURKISH ILLUSTRATED BOOK, printed in an edition of 1,000 copies, and the second book issued by the famous press of Müteferrika, the first Ottoman Turkish publisher. Kâtib Çelebi's work is a valuable historical survey of Ottoman sea-power both before the capture of Constantinople, and after the associated reorganisation of the fleet. Müteferrika worked from the manuscripts left by the Turkish polyhistorian Mustafa b. Abdullah, called Kâtib Çelebi, who began his cosmography in 1648, based on early Arab geographical writings. Bagrow, in his History of Cartography, apparently did not know of this edition since he discusses only a later work by Kâtib Çelebi with additions by Abu Kakr, printed by the same printer in 1732, called the Cihan-numa ('The Mirror of the World').
The fine hand-colored maps are: a world map in two hemispheres after Mercator-Hondius; the Mediterranean and Black Seas; Greece and part of Asia Minor; and the Adriatic Sea. The last plate shows two marine compass-roses, one with the winds named in Turkish, the other in Arabic and Persian. Atabey 898; Babinger, p.12; Blackmer 1176; Toderini III, pp. 25-34 (defective copy); Watson 2 (defective copy). Fact and Fantasy 63.
Small 2o (261 x 176 mm). 84 leaves, first text leaf misbound after fol.5. Foliated: 7 leaves preliminaries, 75 leaves text, 2 leaves index. 25 lines, text printed within single rule border. Four hand-colored double-page engraved maps and one hand-colored double-page engraved plate of the mariner's compass, heightened with gold. (One leaf with fore-margin renewed.) Contemporary Italian vellum, coat-of-arms of the Marini family blindstamped at the center of both covers, gilt-lettered morocco spine label. Provenance: Gaetano Marini (1740-1815), Italian antiquary and curator of the Vatican Library (binding; note in his hand mounted on pastedown providing bibliographical data and stating that the work includes a treatise on measuring geographical distance); acquired from Jake Zeitlin, 1972.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST TURKISH ILLUSTRATED BOOK, printed in an edition of 1,000 copies, and the second book issued by the famous press of Müteferrika, the first Ottoman Turkish publisher. Kâtib Çelebi's work is a valuable historical survey of Ottoman sea-power both before the capture of Constantinople, and after the associated reorganisation of the fleet. Müteferrika worked from the manuscripts left by the Turkish polyhistorian Mustafa b. Abdullah, called Kâtib Çelebi, who began his cosmography in 1648, based on early Arab geographical writings. Bagrow, in his History of Cartography, apparently did not know of this edition since he discusses only a later work by Kâtib Çelebi with additions by Abu Kakr, printed by the same printer in 1732, called the Cihan-numa ('The Mirror of the World').
The fine hand-colored maps are: a world map in two hemispheres after Mercator-Hondius; the Mediterranean and Black Seas; Greece and part of Asia Minor; and the Adriatic Sea. The last plate shows two marine compass-roses, one with the winds named in Turkish, the other in Arabic and Persian. Atabey 898; Babinger, p.12; Blackmer 1176; Toderini III, pp. 25-34 (defective copy); Watson 2 (defective copy). Fact and Fantasy 63.