TOURNEFORT J.P.: Beschryving van eene Reize naar de Levant gedaan op bevel des Konings van Vrankryk behelzende de oude en Hedendaagsche Historie van verscheide Eilanden van de Archipelago, van de kusten des Zwarte Zee, van Armenie, Georgie….. Amsterdam 1737 First and only edition in Dutch, the rarest edition of Tournefort’s work, with completely re-engraved plates by Dutch artists. Complete in two volumes bound in one, with all 146 beautiful copper-engraved plates for this edition (103 outside the text), plus some additional coins and letter inscriptions in the text (which appear as plates in the French edition). Large 4to 26 x 21 cm, contemporary hard paper covers, trimmed around with some loss of paper on the spine, lower part of spine chipped with some loss, upper joint weak. Text and plates clean and bright with very little wear on some pages, a very light marginal corner waterstain at the very end. Collation: [32], 191 p., 186 p., lacking the very last page. The drawings for the plates were by Claude Aubriet, a skilful painter who accompanied Tournefort in the Levant, but they were re-engraved by Dutch artists for this edition on new copper plates, often with different sizes. The plates depict numerous views of towns, people, and monuments of Greece and Asia Minor, as well as flowers of the Levant. Tournefort (1656–1708) was a famous botanist, sent in 1699–1700 to the Levant on a secret mission by the French King under the pretext of botanical research. He visited many Greek islands, Constantinople, and was the first to visit and prepare a detailed travel account of the Pontos area and the interior of Anatolia. An influential travel book of the region, very richly illustrated. Absent from Atabey and Blackmer in this edition, as well as from most major collections of the Levant. Rare.