A SCOTSMAN IN ASIA
BELL, John.
Travels from St Petersburgh in Russia, to various parts of Asia. Illustrated with maps …
Edinburgh, printed for William Creech and sold by Geo. Robinsons and Co., 1788.
2 vols, 8vo, pp. xiv, [2], 442; vi, 554; with two folding engraved maps showing Bell’s journey; occasional light foxing, a few closed marginal tears, a little damp staining to lower corners of vol. 1, map in vol. 1 torn along crease (without loss); overall good in contemporary calf, spines decorated in gilt and with contrasting lettering- and numbering-pieces; some wear to spines, joints, corners and edges, a few marks to covers; armorial bookplate of Robert Hunter of Thurston.
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Travels from St Petersburgh in Russia, to various parts of Asia. Illustrated with maps …
Edinburgh edition (first Glasgow 1763) of this account of the Asian adventures of the Scottish traveller and physician John Bell (1691–1780) undertaken between 1715 and 1738. The first volume supplies an account of Bell’s journeys from St Petersburg to Isfahan as medical attendant to the Russian ambassador Artemy Valaisky, and then to Beijing with the embassy of Peter the Great. ‘After a journey of sixteen months across the Russian steppes, through Siberia and the deserts of Tartary, the embassy made a splendid entry into Peking’ in November 1720; ‘Bell spent much of his time making friends and exploring the city, and his account of his experiences makes a refreshing change from the normal’ (Howgego). In volume two Bell translates the French journal of Lorenz Lange from the same mission, describes his own journey with Peter the Great in his perilous expedition to Derbent and the Caspian Gates in 1722, and ends with an account of his trek to Constantinople in 1737–8.
ESTC T99654; Howgego B62.
