17th Century Text on the War between Venice and the Ottomans, Including 58 Engravings, 1686-87

Description Geographique et Historique de la Moree Reconquise par les Venetiens. Vicenzo Maria Coronelli. Chez Claude Barbin: Paris, 1686-1687. First French edition. Small octavo, two volumes in one. 295 pages. 58 double-page copperplate engravings including a map of the Peloponnese. First French edition of the important contemporary account by Coronelli of the War of the Morea, also known as the Sixth Turkish-Venetian War. The text also inclues descriptive and historical material on the Morea. Coronelli was an Italian Franciscan friar, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist famous in his time for his atlases and globes. His engravings (truncated) are a major source of iconographical material for the development of Venetian fortifications and for the historical evidence of their campaigns in Greece. He lived and worked in Venice where he was commissioned to take part in the work of the time, making written record of new information as it became rapidly more available. Woodcut chapter head and tail-pieces and printed guide letters in woodcut frames. Contemporary calf stamped in gilt to front cover with crowned monogram "V." Front pastedown with the mid-18th century engraved armorial bookplate of Jacques-Marie Jerome. Remanants of an inscription on the front pastedown dated 1687 and in French. Rebacked and recornered. Small chips to front and back boards. Ex-libris. (Inventory #: 18390)