Hadriani Relandi [Adriaan Reland/Reelant]. Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata, Tomus I-II. Utrecht: Guilielmi Broedelet (Trajecti Batavorum), 1714. Latin, some Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. Two books in one volume. First edition.
Study of Palestine. Titles in red and black. Contains 15 engraved plates of which six are folding, including a portrait of the author, nine maps of the Holy Land, various charts, and an engraving preceding the title page. Also includes 15 additional engravings in the text.
Adriaan Reland (1676-1718) was a Dutch geographer, cartographer, philologist and polylinguist, and one of the first Orientalists. Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Utrecht from 1701 and lecturer on the history of the Jewish people. In 1695, Reland was sent to Palestine, where he conducted an exhaustive geographical survey of biblical Eretz Israel. Reland journeyed to 2,500 sites mentioned in the Bible, Mishnah and Talmud, identified every site with the source of its name, and mapped it. He also conducted a census of each site. The results of his extensive survey are recorded in this book.
[10], 1068, [94] pp + [1] leaf (title page of the second book) + [15] plates (six folded), 20 cm. Good condition. Some stains. Worming throughout the book. Tears at margins of some leaves. Tears to first folding plate (author's portrait). Contemporary vellum binding with manuscript spine, loose (first and last gatherings shaky).