Amsterdam, Aux dépens de la compagnie, 1735.
4 parts in 2 volumes 4to [247 x 195 mm] of : I/ (7) ll., 390 pp., (1) bl. l., (2) ll., 359 pp., 1 frontispiece, 61 plates, 2 maps and 2 vignettes inside the text; II/ (3) ll., 437 pp., (3) ll., 324 pp., (15) ll, 1 frontispiece, 16 plates and 2 vignettes inside the text. Fawn calf with a mosaic pattern, covers decorated with a double mosaic frame alternating brown and fawn calf with a darker central panel, the whole highlighted with blind-stamped borders and fleurons, gilt fillet, ribbed spines richly decorated, mottled edges. Contemporary English binding. Marks of ownership of two libraries on the titles.
First complete edition of Chardin’s travels in Persia, enlarged with several extracts and with Suleiman III’s coronation.
Brunet, I, 1802; Chadenat, I, 1566; Schwab, Bibliographie de la Perse, n°87-88; Wilson p.40; Atabey 220; Diba p. 238.
Suleiman III’s Coronation gives a particular interest to this edition.
“This relation, Boucher de la Richarderie says, hasn’t been inserted in the editions of Chardin’s travels in 1711 and 1723. It is only present in the last edition of his Travels, published after his death in 1735.- Very rare”. (Bibliographie de la Perse).
“The unanimous testimony of the travelers who have, since Chardin, visited and described the same countries, only helped to notice the accuracy, the depth of his observations, the variety of his knowledge and his truthfulness […] The first edition of his travels, published in London in 1686 folio, only encloses the travel from Paris to Isfahan; it hasn’t been continued because the author left for Holland where he published 2 other editions, more or less complete of his Travel in Persia. We say more or less complete because the bookseller Delorme forced the author to suppress some passages likely to annoy the Roman clergy, and to prevent the debit of the work in France. These passages have been inserted again in the 1735 edition, 4 4to volumes”.
(Biographie universelle, VII, 506).
This edition is illustrated with 79 engravings out of text including 51 folding and 4 head-pieces.
The 2nd part presents folding tables up to 190 cm long and presenting the bas-relief of a temple in the ruins of Persepolis.
Chadenat mentions concerning this edition: “79 beautiful folding plates: maps, views, scenes, etc.” He specifies that he owns “a very beautiful edition, in a nice binding [in sprinkled calf with a part of light calf on the covers], of this esteemed work”.
Son of a jeweler Place Dauphine in Paris, Chardin left to India in 1665, secondarily in order to trade diamonds, but mostly driven by the passion of travels. He crossed Persia, visited Surate, Ormus, and came back to settle in Isfahan, where he stayed 6 years and where the Shah Abbas II appointed him as his “merchant”.
“His official position, his relations with the main characters, the knowledge he quickly got of the country’s idioms, allowed him to gather many information about the government, the habits, the antiquities, the monuments and the history of Persia (…).
It was claimed that the academician Charpentier had helped Chardin in writing his book. Be as it may, what truly belongs to this illustrious traveler, are the precious materials gathered with so many intelligence and courage, these searches, observations, these curious and authentic information about the history, the administration, the legislation, the habits, the sciences, the arts, the customs of a country almost unknown until then.”
“This travel is one of the most interesting published in the latest century. This edition is still quite sought-after […] and is rarely found” mentions Brunet.
Beautiful wide-margined copy, illustrated with 79 superb full-page engravings, preserved in its elegant contemporary mosaic calf binding.
