159 - [Turkey]. ESPRINCHARD, Jacques.

[Turkey]. ESPRINCHARD, Jacques. History of the Ottomans, or Emperors of the Turks, up to Muhammad III, revised and expanded since the first edition. Appended at the end is a treatise on the military strength of the Ottoman Empire, the emperors’ designs, and the means to counter them (to thwart them). Paris: Marc Orry, 1609. Small 8vo, (21)-340 ff. (Quire Ff contains a blank folio; several pagination errors with no loss of text, including: resumes at 60 after page 69 and continues through p. 75, then resumes at 86; quire L is complete with all 8 leaves, but 2 leaves are marked 100 and lack leaves 101 and 102). Soft, sewn vellum binding of the period, smooth spine, title and date handwritten at the time (small stains on the sides of the vellum; a few quires slightly out of alignment; a few browned leaves; marginal defects including small stains and minor, insignificant worm damage on the inner fore-edge; a tear with no loss on f. 254; soiled title page). Only known edition. Only 3 copies in the CCFr (BNF). Copy in its original binding. With a typographic mark featuring a motto on the title page (a lion climbing a mountain) and engraved wooden headbands. Posthumous work. A traveler from La Rochelle, jurist, and scholar, Jacques Esprinchard (1573–1604)—still relatively unknown despite a 1956 study by Léopold Chatenay—was a pioneer of the “scholarly journey” and kept a journal of his travels and observations at a time when the genre of travel literature was still taking shape. In particular, on his journey from Basel to Geneva, he left behind pages as detailed and vivid as those of Montaigne’s secretary. Cited by Pierre de L’Estoile, he had a reputation as a scholar. Former bookplate with the title [J... Deloir] and some scribbles in the margins; an old handwritten page, partially torn, opposite the title page; old handwritten bookplates dating from ca. the 17th century in the margins of ff. 40 and 74, which also appear on the last page. Missing from Atabey and Blackmer.