MBA004: Lot 60. DELLA VALLE, Pietro.

Very fresh example of the first edition in German. “His perceptive and detailed letters, enriched by the romance and poignancy of his devotion to his wife, together create one of the finest works of travel literature” (Howgego).

Pietro Della Valle’s (1586-1652) text comprises a series of fifty-four letters written to the physician Schipano of Naples during his extensive travels. He left Venice in 1614 on a pilgrimage to Palestine. From Sinai he proceeded to Damascus, Aleppo and Baghdad, thence into Persia where he married the Circasssian Setti Manni, who accompanied him on his further travels. In Persia, he spent some time at the court of Shah Abbas, but his wife died at Persepolis in 1622. He had her body embalmed and took it with him, accompanied by her Georgian maidservant. His travels took him further east to the coast of India as far as Calicut, and from Goa to Muscat, thence to Aleppo by way of Basrah, finally reaching Rome in 1626. He subsequently married the maidservant, by whom he had fourteen sons.

Description

Four volumes in one, folio (34 x 21 cm.), half-title, printed title in red and black, engraved pictorial additional title and 30 plates, directions to the binder leaf at end, contemporary vellum, spine with title in gilt, a fine copy.

Provenance

Bibliography

Rohricht 948; Tobler p98. Cf Blackmer 1712 for French edition; cf Koç, Constantinople I 56 for Italian edition.