Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata, by Adriaan Reland. Utrecht (Trajecti Batavorum), 1714. Latin, some Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. Two parts in one volume. First edition.
Study of Palestine. Contains 16 engraved plates (seven are folding), including a portrait of the author, maps and charts, a frontispiece and several small in-text engravings.
Adriaan Reland (Adriaan Reelant / Adriaan Reland / Hadriani Relandi, 1676-1718), was a Dutch geographer, cartographer, philologist 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 a survey of 2,500 settlements, mapped them and conducted surveys and censuses, all recorded in this volume.
[5] leaves, 511, [1] pp; [2] leaves, [515]-1068 pp, [47] leaves + [16] plates. 20 cm. Good overall condition. Stains, including some dampstains. Tears to a number of folding plates. Long tears to one of the folding plates (Map of Palestine). Bookplate to inner side of front binding and ink-stamp on one of the pages. Vellum binding, slightly damaged.