51 - BRIOT: Histoire de l' Etat présent de l' Empire Ottoman. Amsterdam, 1670

BRIOT: Histoire de l' Etat présent de l' Empire Ottoman. Amsterdam, 1670 First edition. In 12mo. Contemporary full vellum, slightly soiled. Complete: 498 pp., engraved frontispiece, and 18 folded copper-engraved plates, as called for. A fine, clean copy. Briot compiled this account of Greece and the Levant based on Rycaut’s History of the Ottoman Empire, described by Blackmer as an “extremely important and influential work” that offered the fullest account of the Ottoman world in the 17th century. The fine costume engravings are derived from the kıyafet (costume) book commissioned by Rycaut from an artist in the Grand Bazaar of Constantinople. Rycaut himself had gone to Constantinople in 1661 as secretary to the British ambassador, spending seven years in the Levant. His travel narrative was first published in 1668, but that edition lacked the beautiful costume plates, which appear here for the first time. Scarce.