Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays étrangèrs

Lot 14
06.10.2022 12:00UTC -05:00
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Starting price
$ 4 000
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Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 813715
Lot 14 | Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays étrangèrs
Estimate value
$ 4 000 – 6 000
Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays étrangèrs

Pierre Belon, 1555

BELON, Pierre (1517-1564). Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables trouvées en Grèce, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays étrangèrs. Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1555.



The Beaupré-De Vinne-Messenger copy of an important travel narrative by a leading naturalist—one of the first productions of the Plantin Press. Most famous now for his work in the natural sciences (Pavlov called him "the prophet of comparative anatomy"), Pierre Belon attracted the patronage of Cardinal François de Tournon, who funded a major scientific journey through the Mediterranean and Middle East. This book is an illustrated account of his travels, containing descriptions not only of flora and fauna but the costumes and customs of the Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions. "His was the most documented account of the Levant which had appeared up to that time in French" (Blackmer). It was first printed in Paris in 1553; this Antwerp octavo edition was published simultaneously with a new quarto edition in Paris. The present edition is the rarer of the two, and is more commonly found with the imprint of Johannes Steelsius. This was printed in the first year of the Plantin Press's operation in Antwerp; in his early career, Christophe often worked closely with and for other local printers, including Steelsius, explaining the variation in the imprint of this edition. Plantin and Steelsius remained close colleagues, and Plantin would later collaborate with Steelsius's widow, the printer Anna van Ertborn. Netherlandish Books 3360; Voet 637b; Nissen ZBI 304, BBI 132; see Atabey 93 (1554 edition) and Blackmer 115 (1554 edition).



Octavo (154 x 94mm). Woodcut device on title, portrait of Belon, and illustrations throughout, with folding woodcut of Mt Sinai (folding woodcut repaired along fold with some losses replaced in facsimile). 20th-century green morocco gilt, edges gilt, green silk doublures. Provenance: Jean-Nicolas Beaupré, c.1792-1869 (bookplate) – Theodore Low De Vinne, 1828-1914 (bookplate, his sale 12 January 1920, lot 125) – Maria Gerard Messenger, 1849-1937 (American bookplate collector; bookplate).

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