A Voyage into the Levant
Perform'd by Command of the Late French King

A two-volume account, published in French in 1717 and translated in 1718, of a scientific voyage to the Black Sea.

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (Author), John Ozell (Translated by)

9781108075237, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 May 2014

528 pages, 45 b/w illus.
30 x 21 x 3 cm, 1.4 kg

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708) was originally destined for the church, but his interest in botany led him to become professor of botany at the Jardin des plantes in Paris, and to travel all over Europe and beyond in search of interesting specimens. He was chiefly interested in the classification of plants, but is now best remembered for the accounts he wrote of voyages undertaken for the purpose of scientific discovery. This illustrated two-volume work, published posthumously in French in 1717 and translated into English the following year, recounts a journey begun in 1700, around the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, visiting Crete and other Greek islands, Istanbul, Armenia and Georgia. Tournefort notes not only plants, but geographical features, antiquities, the people he encounters, and their way of life, agriculture and industry. Volume 2 continues the journey around the Black Sea and describes the voyage home.

1. Of the government and polity of the Turks
2. Of the religion, manners and customs of the Turks
3. A description of the canal of the Black Sea
4. Description of the south coasts of the Black Sea, from the mouth of it as far as to Sinope
5. Description of the coasts of the Black Sea, from Sinope to Trebisond
6. Journey to Armenia and Georgia
7. Journey to three-churches, description of Mount Ararat, and our return to Erzeron
8. Of the manners, religion, and commerce of the Armenians
9. Journey to Tocat and Angora
10. Journey to Smyrna and Ephesus
Index.

Subject Areas: Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]