98 - JOSE MORENO: Viaje a Constantinopla en el ano 1784. Madrid, 1790

JOSE MORENO: Viaje a Constantinopla en el ano 1784. Madrid, 1790 First and only edition. Folio. Contemporary full Spanish binding, full leather slightly rubbed at the corners and with some wear on the covers, small parts of leather missing at the upper and lower ends of the spine. Complete: [12], 360 p., 33 p., and 24 copper-engraved plates plus one double-page map, as called for. Some light scattered spotting, very slightly dusty in a few places, a few text edges frayed. Mostly clean and bright. Overall complete and very good. This is the first comprehensive and detailed Spanish travel account of the Levant in the 18th century. In 1784 a Spanish fleet traveled to Constantinople, crossing the Aegean. As it was a governmental mission, they kept a detailed calendar, and skilled artists prepared original drawings, views, and maps. All the plates are unique to this edition and depict fine views of the Levant and maps. The book is richly illustrated with 25 fine views and maps of Greece and Constantinople. Moreno looked with sympathy at the Greek under the Ottoman rule and provided one of the earliest accounts for modern Greece to the Spanish public, at the beginning of the Philhellenic period in Spain. The second appendix, present in this set, contains a very rare travel account of another Spanish traveler to Cyprus during the 1780s. Rare. References: Atabey 835, Blackmer 1182