ΜΑΡΚΟΣ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΣ ΖΑΛΩΝΗΣ [Marc Philippe Zallony]: Essai sur les Fanariotes, ou l on voit les causes de leur elevation… et les causes de leur chute…, suivi de quelques reflexions sur l etat actuel de la Grece. Marseille 1824. First edition. In 8vo 22 x 13 cm, contemporary leather over boards, a few damp stains on the boards. Complete: half title, title, 351 p. Text clean, with some scattered light spotting on a few pages, mostly at the end. Overall in very good condition. Zallonys (1782–c.1850), originally from the island of Tinos, produced his rarest account here, absent from almost all major collections, as it was printed in the provincial city of Marseilles for distribution during the Greek Revolution, mostly within local Philhellenic circles, where Zallonys was an active member. The first part of the book presents in detail the Greek ruling class of Constantinople, the Fanariotes, and the internal condition of the Greeks under Ottoman rule. Zallonys provides very valuable information as a native Greek well-informed on many aspects of the ruling class based in the Phanar. Yet his account is not impartial. He had married the daughter of a leading Phanariot family, whose opposition to the marriage forced him first to escape with his wife to Thessaloniki. After their marriage was dissolved, due to the fierce resistance of the Patriarch, he was obliged to move to Marseilles, where he became a leading member of the Greek Committee during the Revolution. The second part of the book is an invaluable account of the situation in Greece in 1823–24, with much information on the internal divisions of the time. Zallonys visited Greece in 1823 and provided firsthand eyewitness testimony. A very rare Philhellenic account published in Marseilles.