SHAW (Thomas). Travels, or Observations Relating to Several Parts of Barbary and the Levant.1738

Oxford: Printed at the Theatre, First edition, folio (340 x 210 mm), [8], xv, [1, errata], 442, [2], 60, [8]pp., with half-title, title-page printed in red and black with engraved vignette, ownership signature cut-away from blank margin at head of title-page, lower outer corner of final leaf torn-away, just affecting one word of letterpress, 11 engraved maps (of which 6 are folding), 20 engraved plates one 17 leaves, one engraved folding plan, a couple of closed tears to 3 maps, engraved head- and tailpieces, minor worm track to blank endpapers, some very light staining to blank lower margin of first couple of leaves, contemporary full panelled calf, two repaired gouges to lower board, neatly reback, leather spine lettering piece. First edition of Thomas Shaw's travels across North Africa and the Middle East. Thomas Shaw (1692-1751), traveller and "chaplain to the English factory at Algiers from 1720 to 1723. During this period he visited Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, Cyprus and most of North Africa... [The work] is especially esteemed for its botanical and zoological plates, in addition to the information Shaw imparts on the antiquities, geology and geography of the areas he visited."—Blackmer. Provenance: Early ownership signature in ink to front paste-down 'C. F. Read, Leats, Wilts.' Cox I, p.377; Blackmer, 1533-1534.