631J

Sandys, George, 1578-1644., 

Sandys travels : containing an history of the original and present state of the Turkish Empire, their laws, government, policy, military force, courts of justice, and commerce, the Mahometan religion and ceremonies, a description of Constantinople, the Grand Signior’s seraglio, and his manner of living : also, of Greece, with the religion and customs of the Grecians : of Ægypt, the antiquity, hieroglyphicks, rites, customs, and discipline, and religion of the Ægyptians : a voyage on the River Nylvs : of Armenia, Grand Cairo, Rhodes, the Pyramides, Colossus, the former flourishing and present state of Alexandria : a description of the Holy-Land, of the Jews, and several sects of Christians living there : of Jerusalem, sepulchre of Christ, Temple of Solomon, and what else either of antiquity, or worth observation : lastly, Italy described, and the islands adjoining, as Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Sicilia, the Æolian Islands, of Rome, Venice, Naples, Syracusa, Mesena, Aetna, Scylla, and Charybdis, and other places of note : illustrated with fifty graven maps and figures.

London : printed for John Williams junior, at the Crown in Little-Britain, 1673.        $2,900

Folio , 32 1/2  x 20 cm. .  Seventh edition. Signatures: A3 B-X6  There is an extra engraved title page as frontis, double-page map of eastern Mediterranean to Caspian Sea, Arabia, Black Sea, fold-out panorama of part of Constantinople, and a total of 50 engravings including costumes, plans, views.  This copy is bound in a beautifully perserved  17th century panel calf binding. With an old and expert rebacking. 

“In 1615 Sandys  published an account of his travels, with the title ‘The Relation of a Journey begun an. Dom. 1610, in Four Books.’ The volume was dedicated to Prince Charles, under whose auspices all Sandys’s literary work saw the light. Sandys was an observant traveller. Izaak Walton noticed in his ‘Compleat Angler’ (pt. i. ch. i.) Sandys’s account of the pigeon-carrier service between Aleppo and Babylon. His visit to the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem inspired an outburst of fervent verse—‘A hymn to my Redeemer’—whence Milton derived hints for his ‘Ode on the Passion’ (stanza vii). The volume was adorned with maps and illustrations, and at once became popular. Editions, with engraved title-pages by Delaram, are dated 1621, 1627, 1637, 1652, and 1673.

An extract, ‘The Relation of Africa,’ i.e. Egypt, appeared in Purchas’s ‘Pilgrimes,’ 1625, pt. ii. Sandys’s accounts of both Africa and the Holy Land figure in John Harris’s ‘Navigantium et Itinerantium Bibliotheca,’ 1705 (vols. i. and ii.).(DNB).

He also took great interest in the earliest English colonization in America and in 1621 sailed to Virginia with his niece’s husband, Sir Francis Wyat, who had been appointed the new governor. Sandys took the position as colonial treasurer of the Virginia Company and when Virginia became a crown colony, he served as a member of the council. Illustrations include plans, views and architecture of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Pompei’s pillar, the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid, the Virgin’s Sepulchre and the mysterious

Bastions of Christendom, and the Holy Land, are represented in great detail; regions where Islam is prevalent are sketched in with minimal detail. This is likewise the case for the perceived backwaters of Christendom. The North and East of Europe, spreading into Asia, remains comparatively sparse. Some of the perceived idiosyncrasies are simply matters of convention for the day. The moniker “Part of ____” might appear at first to be an insult to the Africans and the Arabians. This, however, is a common usage in contemporary maps of this era, demonstrating a lack of detail on un necessary locals. 

ESTC R18550. WING S680.