Paris, Nepveu, 1812.
Six 16mo volumes of I/ 20 pp., xxxi pp. (1) p., 119 pp., (1) p. of table, 1 plate out of pagination; II/ (2) ll., 225 pp., (1) p., (1) l. of table, 1 plate out of pagination; III/ (2) ll., 251 pp. (1) l. of table, 16 plates out of pagination ; IV/ (2) ll., 282 pp., (1) l. of table, 17 plates out of pagination; V/ (2) ll., 231 pp., (1) l. of table, 10 plates out of pagination; VI/ (2) ll., 235 pp., (3) pp, 27 plates out of pagination. Bound in full straight-grained red morocco, gilt border on the covers, flat spine richly decorated, inner gilt border, gilt edges. Contemporary binding signed by R. P. Chilliat.
Sought-after first edition of this important work dedicated to Turkey and illustrated with 72 plates contemporarily hand-colored, representing various scenes and costumes.
Lipperheide, 1427; Graesse, I, 530; Brunet, I, 1226; Colas, 545; Blackmer, 300.
Lord Byron, in a letter directed to Thomas Moore (August 28th 1813), was writing: “If you want any more books, there is Castellan’s ‘Moeurs des Ottomans’, the best compendium of the kind I ever met with, in six small tomes.”
“Castellan (1772-1838) was a French painter, an engraver and an architect. During the Revolution, he has been hired for a while in military cartages; but when he returned to his studies, he left for the Levant, visiting Constantinople, Greece, the islands, Italy and Switzerland, collecting everywhere a large number of documents, drawings… Settled in Paris in 1804, he took care of publishing various works full of interest, in which are recorded the results of his travels and observations. They come with many drawn and engraved views by the author. Byron use to say of this excellent book: ‘don’t go to Turkey without having Castellan in your pocket’.”
Nouvelle biographie générale, IX, 91-92.
The illustration is composed of 6 frontispieces and 66 engraved plates, contemporary hand-colored, representing various scenes, monuments, costumes, towns, music instruments …
The plates are mainly reduced versions of plates from the work “The Costume of Turquey” by Octavien Dalvimart.
Very fresh and beautiful copy of this reference work of Turkey, preserved in its elegant contemporary signed bindings in decorated red morocco.
Provenance: stamp of the Fondation Napoléon, bibliothèque Martial Lapeyre, creator of the Fondation Napoléon in the middle of the 20th century.
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