THROUGH SYRIA AND LEBANON
LA ROQUE, Jean de.
Voyage de Syrie et du Mont-Liban. Contenant la description de tout le pays compris sous le nom de Liban et d’Anti-Liban, Kesroan, etc. ... la description des ruines d’Heliopolis ... avec un abregé de la vie de Monsieur de Chasteuil ... Tome I [– II].
Amsterdam, Herman Uytwerf, 1723.
2 vols in one, 12mo, pp. I: [12], 280, II: 270; with 8 engraved plates (some folding) in the first vol. and one in the second; titles in red and black; engraved initials; some spotting and browning; overall very good in contemporary sprinkled calf; expertly rebacked to style, with gilt decoration and lettering-piece; some wear to covers; early inscription in ink ‘Muysson’ to front free endpaper.
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Voyage de Syrie et du Mont-Liban. Contenant la description de tout le pays compris sous le nom de Liban et d’Anti-Liban, Kesroan, etc. ... la description des ruines d’Heliopolis ... avec un abregé de la vie de Monsieur de Chasteuil ... Tome I [– II].
Second edition (first Paris 1722) of La Roque’s account of his first journey to the Arab world, undertaken in 1689 when he visited Syria and Lebanon. The son of a Marseille coffee merchant, La Roque (1661–1745) was a journalist, traveller, and one of the founders of the Académie de Marseille. Here he describes local customs and geography, the ancient ruins at Baalbek, the Maronites, and the French hermit François de Chasteuil.
The handsome plates depict the Lebanese cedar tree, the Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek, various ancient Greek coins, the course of the Orontes River, and the seal of the Maronite patriarch.
La Roque also travelled down the Red Sea as far as Yemen, and to Palestine. He is perhaps best known for his Voyage de l’Arabie heureuse (1715), with its famous description of coffee.
Cf. Atabey 674 (first edition).
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