Travels, or Observations Relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant

London, A. Millar, 1757, Second edition, with great improvements. . later tan half calf, raised bands, gilt ruled, gilt title on red leather spine label, contemp marbled boards, lightly rubbed, bookplate of Peter Ward, slight foxing & offsetting from plates, sm chip to title corner, map with tear, near fine, nice binding. large 4to [27.5 x 22 cm]; xviii, [ii, sub-title, contents], 513, [i, plate list] pp, 38 copper engraved plates, plans & maps (including 7 folding maps, folding plates), leaf of music, divisional half-titles, engraved head & tail pieces, text illus. . Cox i, p377. Pritzel 8649. Gay 391. Nissen. 3839 Casey Wood p566. Blackmer Sale 307: "His work is valuable for its accurate descriptions of antiquities, geography & natural history he observed". Gibbon praised him and "his scrupulous fidelity was vindicated by James Bruce and by later African explorers. . . a noble example of typography" (D.N.B., vol 17, p 1384). "These Travels have been universally esteemed, not only for their accuracy and fidelity, but on account of the illustrations they contain of natural history, of the classic authors, and especially of the Scriptures." (Lowndes). A handsomely printed work, the best description of North Africa of the period. The author visited Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, Cyprus and most of North Africa, and provides much material on Tunis and Algeria. A section on Lebanon is included in the description of the Levant. More than 640 species of plants are described. There is also a list of the rarer plants of Barbary, Egypt and Arabia. The plates include natural history, botany, animals, antiquities. His geological views were enlightened for his time, while his conjectures on the subject of the pyramids have been fully confirmed by later investigators. This edition has more plates and includes the material in the supplement of 1756 that was not in the first edition of 1738. There is a section on plants, birds, animals, etc, he collected. A picture of this book is available on request by email.