Spotlight

DAPPER, Olfert (1636-1689). Umbständliche und eigentliche Beschreibung von Asia: in sich haltend die Landschafften Mesopotamien, Babylonien, Assyrien, Anatolien oder Klein-Asien; nebenst einer vollkommnen Vorstellung des glücklichen, wüsten und steinigten Arabiens; zusamt deren verschiednen Namen, ... insonderheit der alten Araber, des Mahomets und der Mahometaner (...) anfangs in niederländischer Sprache zusammgebracht. Durch O. Dapper. Anitzo aber ins Hochdt. getreulichst übers. von Johann Christoff Beern. Nürnberg: Hoffmann, 1681. Folio, [4] ff., 556 pp., [7] ff., engraved frontispiece, 21 engraved plates (including 13 double-page and 1 folding),3 double-page engraved maps, 8 engravings in the text. Contemporary vellum, spine with inked title, edges red; binding somewhat spotted, some leaves a little toned, endpapers toned throughout, else a fine copy.

First German edition (after Amsterdam, 1680). A fine and complete copy of Olfert Dappert's (1635-1689), probably the most beautiful work on the Near East and “Arabia Feli”. 

“New in Dapper's approach was, that he did not content himself in editing a travel account but that he autonomously processed and abridged the information he had assembled ... The compilation gained thereby, in comparison to the collection, a great closeness and approved a convenient work of encyclopedic merits”. (Urs Bitterli).

In the first part Dapper describes in particular Anatolia, Persia and Iraq. The second part, entirely devoted to Arabia,  starts with an introduction to the geography of the Arabian Peninsula. The following two chapters deal with the inhabitants and the animals of the region. The social position of the woman and the philosophy and religious beliefs of the ancients is next. At the end come an abridged history of the Arabian world and an elaborated account of the life of Muhammad and the Islam. Dapper's work is of special importance for its original and new information on Islam, Arab science, astronomy, philosophy, and historiography, as well as for its illustrations. The fine copper engraved folding plates depict the most important ancient cities of Asia Minor, such as Smyrna, Ephesos, Abydos or Magnesia. The large foldout engraving shows the monumental Tower of Babel.

References: VD 17, 39:133144U. STC D 200. Blackmer 450. Navari, The Ottoman World I, 322. Urs Bitterli, Cultures in Conflict: Encounters Between European and Non-European Cultures [1993], p. 246.

PRICE: CHF 4 000