Middle East & Islamic World / Central & West Asia

UCHIDA Masao. Yochi shiryaku [Compendium of world geography].
[Tokyo], Meiji 4 [= 1871]. (25.5 x 17 cm). With the title and all text in Japanese, printed from woodblocks on rice paper, with 1 double-page, 2 full-page and 2 half-page maps and 12 full-page and 23 half-page illustrations of architecture, people and costumes, topography, plants and animals. Original publisher's heavy paper wrapper. [1 blank], 59, [1] ll. Full description

VALLE, Pietro della. De volkome beschryving der voortreffelijke reizen van de deurluchtige reisiger Pietro della Valle, edelman van Romen, in veel voorname gewesten des werrelts, sedert het jaer 1615, tot in 't jaar 1626 gedaan ...
Amsterdam, Abraham Wolfgang, 1666 (each volume title: Abraham Wolfgang, widow of Jan Hendriks Boom, Jan Rieuwertsz., 1664-1665). 6 volumes bound as 1. 4to. With 25 engraved plates. 19th-century vellum. Full description

VARTHEMA, Ludivico di. The Navigation and v[o]yages of Lewes Vertomannus, Gentelman of the citie of Rome, to the regions of Arabia, Egypte, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and East India, both within and without the ryver of Ganges, etc. In the yeere of our Lorde 1503. Conteynyng many notable and straunge thinges, both hystoricall and naturall. Translated out of Latine into Engylshe, by Richarde Eden.
London, Richard Jugge, 1577. 4to. With historiated woodcut initials. Splendid modern full navy blue morocco, bands on spine with title showing faded gilt, covers double-ruled gilt. [10], 466, [6] ll. Full description

VARTHEMA, Ludovico di. [transl. John Winter JONES, ed. Norman Mosley PENZER] The itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna from 1502 to 1508 as translated from the original Italian edition of 1510, by John Winter Jones, F.S.A. in 1863 for the Hakluyt Society with a discourse on Varthema and his travels in Southern Asia by Sir Richard Carnac Temple [...].
London, The Argonaut Press, 1928. 4to. With 5 maps, the facsimile text of the title-page and colophon of the original 1510 book of Di Varthema, 1 plate, and a small blue illustration (similar to the blind-tooled image on the front board) on the title-page. Half white and half blue cloth with gold lettering on spine. LXXXV, [1 blank], 121, [3] pp. Full description

VELDE, Charles William Meredith van de. Le Pays d'Israël. Collection de cent vues prises d'après nature dans la Syrie et la Palestine pendant son voyage d'exploration géographique en 1851 et 1852.
Paris, Veuve Jules Renouard, 1857. Elephant folio (44 x 57 cm). With 99 lithographed plates and 1 engraved map. Contemporary half red morocco and brown marbled paper, with the title lettered in gold on the gold-tooled spine, marbled endpapers. [1], 88 pp. Full description

VERNAY, Charles. Poésies nationales et religieuses Françaises, Italiennes, Turques et Persanes, 195 pièces orientales, leur traductions, et le texte Turc et Persan de 57 pièces ...
Paris, Albert Franck (on back of half-title: printed by Firmin Didot frères), 1860[-1861]. With a lithographed portrait of the author, 5 lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts and 4 of the letterpress pages printed in gold. Extra-illustrated with 3 lithographed and 4 engraved Royal folio illustration plates (including 2 portraits of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid I).
With:
(2) VERNAY, Charles. Poésies Turques et Persanes (cent quarante et une pièces) ...
Paris, Albert Franck (below frame: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson), "1858-1859" [= AH 1275]. With a letterpress wrapper-title in French, printed in gold, a lithographed Turkish and Persian wrapper-title (dated "1275" and "1858") and text in Turkish and Persian, lithographed from the autograph manuscript in Arabic script, all printed in gold, and a lithographed portrait of the author (the same as in ad 1).
(3) VERNAY, Charles. Nouvelles poésies Persanes et Turques ...
Paris, Albert Frank, July 1860 (colophon: lithographed by [Mathieu] Masson, r. de Valois 48, Paris). A large 4to bifolium, with a lithographic facsimile of a 4-page autograph manuscript in Arabic script, printed on blue paper.
(4-18) VERNAY, Charles. [Miscellaneous publications in various formats, some letterpress, others lithographed facsimiles of the author's autograph manuscripts in French, Turkish and Persian, and including a 1-leaf autograph manuscript in Persian].
Paris, Firmin Didot frères and others, 1851-1858.
18 publications in 1 volume. Royal folio (49.5 x 34.5 cm) with a few items in smaller formats. Contemporary diced, richly gold-tooled calf, each board with a double frame of rolls and stamps, a crescent moon and star inside each corner of the inner frame, blind-tooled turn-ins, green silk brocade endleaves. [2], 4, [1], [1 blank], 142, 4, 143-262, 263-266[bis], 263-266[ter], 263-476, [2], [1 blank], [1]; 112; [4] pp. plus the wrappers and numerous inserted items. Full description

VISCONTI, Giammartino Arconati. Diario di un viaggio in Arabia Petrea (1865).Including: Atlante per servire al Diario di un viaggio in Arabia Petrea.
Torino, Vincenzo Bona, 1872. 2 volumes. Royal 4to (31 x 27 cm). With 2 title-pages printed in red and black, each with the author's wood-engraved decorated GAV-monogram and motto; vol. 1 with 2 folding lithographed maps (1 printed in black, brown and blue, with the route coloured by hand in red, of the Sinai Peninsula; the other in black and white, of the city of Petra); 40 mounted albumen prints after paintings by Emile Pierre Metzmacher (mainly 11.5 x 16 cm), individually mounted with letterpress captions on the mount; and 2 engraved plates; vol. 2 with 6 numbered engraved plates of molluscs and insects. The Diario in the original publisher's maroon cloth with the author's crowned monogram gold--blocked on the front board and spine. The Atlante in the original publisher's blue cloth, with the author's crowned monogram and the title gold-blocked on the front board. Both volumes with gilt edges, orange endpapers and with tissue guard leaves tipped in, protecting the albumen prints and engraved plates. 439; 46, [2 blank] pp. (vol. II, pp. 1-2 blank). Full description

VOGÜÉ, Melchior de. Syrie centrale. Inscriptions sémitiques publiées avec traduction et commentaire.
Paris, J. Baudry, 1868. Folio With 16 plates reproducing inscriptions, plates 1-4, 6, 7, 12, 14 and 15 are engravings and plates 5, 8-11, 13 and 16 are lithographs. All are after drawings by Melchior de Vogüé and all except no. 12 were engraved or lithographed by E. Roussaux and printed by J. Grandjean in Paris. Plate no. 12 was engraved by L. Dardel and printed by Lamoureux in Paris. With additional illustrations in the text and parts of the text in Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek type. Modern half calf, marbled boards, silver lettering on spine. [4], II, [2], 132 pp. Full description

WILSON, Charles. Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt. Edited by Colonel Wilson, R.E, C.B., F.R.S. formerly engineer to the Palestine Exploration Society. Assisted by the most eminent Palestine explorers etc. With numerous engravings on steel and wood.
London, Virtue and Co., [ca. 1870]. 4 volumes. Large 4to (33 x 25 cm). With 4 title-pages in red and black, each with a different large steel-engraved vignette, 38 steel-engraved plates (including 4 different frontispieces), 2 double-page engraved maps of Egypt and Sinai, printed in brown, and 576 wood-engravings on integral leaves, many full-page. Contemporary half sheepskin. [2], X, 240; [2], VI, 240; [2], IV, 240; [2], IV, 236 pp. Full description

WÜSTENFELD, Ferdinand (transl.); Abu Abdallah AL-DIMASCHKÍ (ed.); Zubair ibn BAKKAR. Die Familie el-Zubeir. Der Tod des Muc'ab ben el-Zubeir aus den Muwaffakîjat des Abu Abdallah el-Dimaschkí. Arabisch und Deutsch.
Göttingen, Dieterich'sche Verlags-Buchhandlung, 1878. Large 4to. With 1 folding genealogical table of the Zubayr family bound at the end of the book. Contemporary half blue cloth, decorated paper sides, grey spine label with title in gold. 112 pp. Full description