AN ITINERARY WRITTEN BY FYNES MORYSON GENT. FIRST IN THE LATINE TONGUE, AND THEN TRANSLATED BY HIM INTO ENGLISH;

London, John Beale, 1617.. Title continued: CONTAINING HIS TEN YEERES TRAVELL THROUGH THE TWELVE DOMINIONS OF GERMANY, BOHMERLAND, SWEITZERLAND, NETHERLAND, DENMARKE, POLAND, ITALY, TURKY, FRANCE, ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND. Divided into III Parts: The I Part containeth a journall through all the said twelve dominions: shewing particularly the number of miles, the soyle of the country, the situation of cities, the descriptions of them with all monuments in each place worth the seeing, as also the rates of hiring coaches or horses from place to place, with each daies expences for diet, horsemeat, and the like. The II Part containeth the rebellion of Hugh Earle of Tyrone and the appeasing thereof: written also in forme of a journall. The III Part containeth a discourse upon severall heads, through all the said severall dominions. FIRST EDITION 1617. folio in sixes, approximately 300 x 200 mm, 12 x 8 inches, 8 text illustrations, 7 near half page woodcut maps in the text (Venice, Naples, Rome, Genoa, Paris, Jerusalem - plan of church of Holy Sepulchre, Constantinople), plus a larger map of Turkey, 1 full page comparative table of English and Scottish weights and monies, head- and tailpieces and large historiated initials, pages: [14], 1-84, 83-106, 109-295, [1], 301, [1], 292, first and final blanks missing, some misnumbering of pages but collated and text complete, bound in full speckled calf, triple gilt ruled border to covers, small gilt ornament to corners, rebacked with original backstrip laid on, raised bands, gilt decoration in compartments, gilt lettered red morocco label, new leather showing on hinges and at head and tail of spine, all edges red, elaborate gilt inner dentelles, marbled endpapers. Board corners just slightly worn, slight darkening to lower board next to spine, small horizontal crack to surface leather at foot of spine, neat repair to inner paper hinges, hardly noticeable, small armorial bookplate on front pastedown of John Fowler of Braemore, half-title laid down on old paper, slightly trimmed copy affecting top margins, no loss to printed area (there are 21 leaves where the trimming affects the upper rule with slight loss to a few, on page 40 in Part 3, a few letters of the running title are just affected), 2 incorrect words in running titles crossed through, neat old paper repair to lower blank corner of Ee4, not affecting text, small chip to fore-edge margin on Rrr3, nowhere near text, otherwise a very good tight clean crisp copy. The chapters include travels in Elizabethan times plus a first-hand account of the Irish Rebellion of the Earl of Tyrone (1594-1603), customs, food and wine and cost of travel. Fynes Moryson (1566 1630), spent many years in travel on the continent of Europe, and in Palestine, Syria and Turkey (1591-1597). In 1598 he embarked on travels through England and Scotland. In 1600 he became secretary to Sir Charles Blount, lord-deputy of Ireland. In this role he helped to suppress Tyrone's rebellion, an account of which and of his experiences in Ireland is given in Part II of his Itinerary. Part I is a detailed journal of his travels in Europe and the Middle East including Jerusalem and Constantinople. Part III is a series of essays on the value and difficulty of foreign travel, hints for the traveller, on geography, and the characteristics of the different nations ."Moryson is a sober and truthful writer. He delights in statistics respecting the mileage of his daily journeys and the varieties in the values of the coins he encountered. His descriptions of the inns in which he lodged, of the costume and the food of the countries visited, render his work invaluable to the social historian" Dictionary of National Biography. See: Howegego, Encyclopedia of Exploration to 1800, page 734, M173; Sotheby's.The Library of Henry M. Blackmer II, page 115, No. 225. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.