Books and Manuscripts

Shaw, Thomas
Travels or Observations Relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant
Oxford: Printed at the Theatre, 1738. First edition. Folio, 13 3/8 x 8 5/8 in. (340 x 219 mm). (viii), xv, (i), 442, (2), 60, (8) pp.; with half-title. Title-page printed in red and in black and with an engraved vignette. Illustrated with 32 engraved plates on 29 sheets (including 12 maps), as well as numerous engraved head- and tail-pieces, historiated initials, one engraved sheet of music, and numerous in-text engravings, woodcuts, and diagrams. Contemporary full paneled brown calf, stamped in blind, rebacked, tan morocco spine label, stamped in gilt, boards lightly scratched and rubbed, wear along extremities, corners worn; red speckled edges; foxing to endpapers; light foxing to prelims; scattered mostly minor spotting to text; bottom part of map of Southern Province of the Kingdom of Algiers restored in facsimile; scattered wear along folds to some folding plates. Armorial book-plate of Samuel Peploe, L.L.D. on front paste-down, additional armorial book-plate of Sir Joseph Verdin, 1st Baronet, on front free endpaper. ESTC T1146090

First edition of English cleric Thomas Shaw's travels across North Africa and the Middle East. A major feat of travel literature, praised for its accurate descriptions of the region as well as for the book's design and illustration. Upon taking Holy Orders, Shaw was appointed to the factory of English merchants at Algiers, from where during the 1720s he traveled extensively throughout Egypt, Sinai, Cyprus, Palestine, and Syria. While on his travels he gathered copious amounts of information regarding the region's natural history and antiquities, which formed the basis of the present work.