Voyages [...] dans plusieurs provinces de la Barbarie et du Levant: contenant des observations géographiques, physiques et mêlées sur les royaumes d'Alger et de Tunis, sur la Syrie, l'Égypte et l'Arabie Pétrée. Avec des cartes et des figures [...].

2 vols, 4to: [2]-xl-414, iv-192-172 pp.; 33 pls (slightly dampstained at top margin of vol. I, some spots, some lvs sl. browned, faded text I-285, brown line on pl. 27, tear II-133).

Contemp. tree calf, richly gilt-tooled flat spines with red and green labels, gilt-tooled cuts (hinges slightly worn, boards sl. rubbed, some lacks covered up with brown paint or restored...).

First edition of the translation in French (1st ed. in Engl. : Oxford, 1738) by an anonymous translator (according to Park & Rota, maybe Étienne Bourdeaux who cosigned the foreword with the editor, and was Shaw's acquaintance to whom the corrections and additions -arising out of the English edition of 1738- were sent). Complete with 33 plates (13 maps or plans, 20 depicting fauna and flora, Egyptian antiquities, coins and inscriptions, music) and with numerous woodcuts in the text. Title in red/black. Shaw (1694-1751) was appointed chaplain to the factory at Algiers where he lived for 12 years. Fluent in Arabic en Hebrew, besides Latin and Greek, he travelled widely and adventurously in the Middle East and related his observations on geography, natural history (with the help of the botanist Johann Jakob Dillenius), customs and antiquities. Ref. Blackmer Sotheby's, 307-308.