IRAN. - Lot 235

IRAN. CHARDIN (Jean). Journal du Voyage du Chevalier Chardin en Perse & aux Indes Orientales par la Mer Noire & par la Colchide. Première Partie qui contient le Voyage de Paris à Ispahan. London: Moses Pitt, 1686. Small in folio, [7] ff. (frontispiece, and portrait), 319 pp. (numbered from 1 to 349, pagination changes from 150 to 181 but not missing), [3] ff. (index). Contemporary fawn basane, 6-rib spine, red title-piece, ornate caissons, speckled edges (binder's defects including split jaws, missing headpieces, rubs and epidermis, pp. 344-348 partly unbound, tears in the lower margin of some plates affecting the engravings). Folio edition of the first part of Chardin's famous voyages to Persia, published in London in 1686 under the title "Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse"..., prior to the publication of the complete edition in 10 volumes in-12 in Amsterdam, in 1711. "For the writing of his voyage, Chardin borrowed the pen of Fr. Charpentier, of the Académie françoise. However, before this new writing, our famous traveler had published in London, with Moses Pitt, in 1686, the first part of his relation, in 1 volume in-folio with figures, under the title of Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin en Perse, première partie qui contient le voyage de Paris à Ispahan (réimpr. à Amsterdam, 1686, in-12)" (Brunet). The illustration consists of 18 black copper-engraved plates, including a title-frontispiece depicting Colchis, a portrait of the author by Logan, a map of the Black Sea and 15 plates illustrating views of Tiflis, Erevan, the Taurus, Sultanieh, Qom... Engraved headbands and initials. Mostly based on drawings by Guillaume-Joseph Grelot, who accompanied Chardin on his trip. Provenance: Bibliothèque de Mr. Gaston Calmann-Lévy with his ex libris on the first endpaper. Small black ink stamp in Hebrew at the bottom of the title. Brunet, I, 1802; Chadenat, I, 546.