Voyage En Turquie Et En Perse. OTTER (Jean).

Voyage En Turquie Et En Perse. Avec une Relation des expéditions de Tahmas Kouli-Khan. Par M. Otter, de l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres.

Engraved folding map.

First Edition. Two volumes. 12mo. [175 x 102 x 66 mm]. [6]ff, 415pp; [1]f, 386pp. Contemporary bindings of speckled calf, the spines divided into six panels with raised bands and gilt compartments, lettered in the second and third on new red goatskin labels to match originals, the others with gilt centres, plain endleaves, red sprinkled edges. (Joints cracked but firm, headcaps chipped, rubbed).
Paris: chez les Freres Guerin, rue Saint Jacques à Saint Thomas d'Aquin, 1748

A very good clean copy. The bindings show some signs of wear, but have not been restored in any way other than the addition of new labels.

No copies are currently on the market and six are listed on ABPC, all sold at Sotheby's:

1. 7/5/2009, lot 103, £2400 (19th century half morocco, side notes cropped).

2. 29/5/2002, lot 893, the Atabey copy, £5500 (contemporary calf).

3. 14/10/1999, lot 594, the Burrell copy, £2200 (modern calf).

4. 21/7/1993, lot 483, £700 (contemporary calf, vol.1 wormed).

5. 11/10/1989, lot 239, the Blackmer copy, £1100 (contemporary calf).

6. 21/2/1977, lot 297, £155 (disbound, lacking first and last leaves).

Jonas (or Jean) Otter (1707-1748) was born in Kristianstad, Sweden, and studied at Lund. In 1728 he converted to Catholicism and left for Rouen, where he studied in the seminary until 1731, moving on to Paris to work at the Post Office. In 1734 the Count of Maurepas sent him to Constantinople to study Arabic and Turkish. Starting in 1736 he travelled via Diyarbakir to Sivas and on to Isfahan, Baghdad, Mosul and Basra, where he was named French Consul in 1742. Returning to Paris in 1744 he worked as a translator at the Bibliothèque de Roi and was named Professor of Arabic Language at the Collège Royal in 1746.

Stock no. ebc7650