Presentation Copy from the Author

By Irby, Charles Leonard and Mangles, James

London: T. White and Co, 1823. First edition. 8vo, [xxxiii], (1) Errata, 560pp. Index. Six engraved plates, 3 plans including two fold-out, Large fold-out linen backed map with color indicating their route, and 1 fold-out map of Petra. Recently bound in tan calf with marble boards, tooled spine with five raised bands and with morocco spine label and bright gilt titles. Overall an excellent copy with prior ex-library ownership stamp on blank side of title page. Pages are foxed and in some places brittle; a few pages moisture-stained to margins. No notations to text. Original ffep severely torn; small tear to map attached thereto. Slight bubbling to cloth near tail edge of bottom board; otherwise a fine rebind, with firm stitching and clean cloth.

After having retired as Commander in the Royal Navy, Charles Irby set off in 1816 with a long standing friend, Captain James Mangles, on a tour of the European Continent. The two travelled significantly beyond their originally intended route, and ultimately visited Egypt, Nubia, Syria, and Asia Minor. With the company of William John Bankes and Thomas Legh, whom they met at Aleppo, they became the earliest modern explorers of Syria. Their letters were afterwards collected and published for private distribution in the this volume. A very good copy of a classic travel narrative.

The authors were officers in the Royal Navy, writing in the form of six letters, give an account of the excavations at Abu Simbel by Belzoni, and were among the first Europeans to visit Petra, Atabey 606; Blackmer 860.

$750.00 -