A Journal, kept on a Journey from Bassora to Bagdad; over the Little Desert, to Aleppo, Cyprus, Rhodes, Zante, Corfu; and Otranto, in Italy; in the Year 1779.

Horsham [England]: Printed by Arthur Lee; and sold by J.F. and C. Rivington, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1784.

Price: $15,000.00


About the item

First edition. [8], xi [1 (blank)], 155 [1 (blank)]pp., including a three page list of subscribers. 8vo. Very Good, ESTC T90227; cf. Howgego P117; Ghani, p. 125. Not in Atabey or Blackmer.

Item #332843

First edition. Octavo. [8], xi [1 (blank)], 155 [1 (blank)]pp., including a three page list of subscribers. Small contemporary library name and owner name on top margin of title page together with a few small ink annotations on front pastedown, and a very few small ink emendations to the text. In the original polished calf over boards, gilt spine with red leather titling label. Small, early paper label on spine, lacking both front and back free endpapers, one text leaf (pp. 43-44) has a five-inch vertical closed tear, one other leaf has a small one-inch lower corner tear, else very good or better, with both the text pages and leather binding clean and bright.

Published anonymously but attributed to either Charles Eversfield (one of the subscribers) or Samuel Evers, this journal gives an account of the author’s journey up the Tigris to Baghdad, “and thence by caravan to Aleppo and the Mediterranean,” including “his observations of customs, town life, encounters with local governors and Sheikhs … and the progress of the current armed conflict between the Turks, with their Arab army, and the Persians in the region of Basra” (*Ghani* p. 125).

A well-preserved copy of a rare book. Only two copies are recorded sold at auction in the last twenty-five years. *ESTC* locates only eight copies. *ESTC* T90227.