IRAN. INDIAN OCEAN. - Lot 239

IRAN. INDIAN OCEAN. MANDELSLO (Jean-Albert). Voyages célèbres & remarquables faits de Perse aux Indes Orientales (...) Contenant une description nouvelle et très curieuse de l'Indostan, de l'empire du Grand-Mogol, des îles et presqu'îles de l'Orient, des royaumes de Siam, du Japon, de la Chine, du Congo, etc. (...). Translated from the original by Sr. A. de Wicquefort. A Leide, chès P. Vander Aa, 1719. 2 volumes in 1 folio, [19] ff. (including engraved title), 808 continuous columns, [36] ff. (table). Slightly later fawn-colored basane, smooth spine, title-piece, restored tail-cap (binding rubbed & oiled, 3 corners worn; tear at fold of one fold-out, marg. tear without missing on another; ink stain pp. 135). Rare first French edition, translated by A. de Wicquefort, of these remarkable voyages. The text was compiled by the German mathematician and traveler Adam Olearius (1599-1671), librarian and mathematician to the Duke of Holstein, from 1666. Contains Mandelslo's (1616-1644) account of his travels between 1638 and 1640. Born in Mecklenburg, Mandelslo followed the Duke of Holstein's embassy to Russia and Persia, visiting India, Madagascar and Ceylon, but never China. "He sailed from Hormuz to Surat and proceeded through Gujarat to Agra, Lahore, Goa, Bijapur and Malaba, visiting Ceylon, Madagascar, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena on his return voyage in 1639. Before his death five years later, he had entrusted his rough notes to Olearius, who subsequently published them with a third part containing descriptions of the Coromandel coast, Bengal, Siam, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Bantam, the Philippines, Formosa (Tai-wan), China and Japan". The work is richly illustrated hors-texte with an engraved title, a portrait of the author, 20 maps and plans, including 14 doubles, 17 double views, seven plates and some twenty mid-page figures and maps in the text, all finely engraved in black intaglio. Considered in bibliographies on the Indian Ocean for early evocations, notably of Madagascar.