STEPHAN GERLACH: Stephan Gerlachs dess Aeltern Tagebuch der von ween glorwudigsten Romischen Kaysern Maximiliano und Rudolfo…. ah die Ottomannische Pforte zu Constantinopel adgefertiften und durch den Wohlgebohrnen Herrn Hn. Ungad…. wischen dem Ottomanischen und Romischen Kayserthum…. Glucklichst - vollbracher gesandtschafft. Frankfurt am Mein 1674 First edition of perhaps the most comprehensive and detailed 16th-century account of the Levant, with particular emphasis on the Greeks under Ottoman rule. Folio (32 × 21 cm). Contemporary full vellum with decorative paper covers; vellum slightly soiled; edges colored; paper trimmed. Title, [26], 552, [36] pp., with one full-page engraved plate at head showing eight portraits of Ottoman sultans, emperors, and Gerlach himself. Text clean and bright, with only light wear to a few pages. Overall very good plus for such a bulky volume. Stephan Gerlach was dispatched to Constantinople on a special mission: to seek an alliance between Orthodoxy and the newly born Lutheran Church against Catholicism. The mission ultimately failed, but his five-year residence in Constantinople (1573–1578) produced an extraordinary diary, offering unparalleled insights into the situation of the Orthodox Church and the lives of Greeks under Ottoman rule. Gerlach maintained constant and close relations with leading Greek figures, purchased many manuscripts from the library of Michael Cantacuzenos, and sent them to Germany. His diary was published posthumously in 1674 by his grandson, who collected and arranged the material. This complete edition has never been translated into English and never reprinted, even in German a true rarity. The wealth of information is astonishing: a day-by-day travel diary and a full report of his contacts with the Greeks, including passages in Greek. Leaving Tübingen in April 1573, Gerlach traveled through Hungary and the Balkans, reaching Constantinople in August. He recorded in detail towns such as Philippopolis, Adrianople, and Selymbria en route, as well as the still-abundant Byzantine monuments he encountered. In Constantinople he described in detail more than 30 Greek churches, their names, dimensions, and architecture. Around the Sea of Marmara he noted Greek communities and churches at Artaki, Kyzikos, Lopadio (Ulubad), Prussa, and many other villages, many now entirely lost. In Lopadio alone he documented six churches, none of which survive. He also toured Thrace and western Asia Minor, and during his return journey in 1578 kept the same meticulous daily itinerary. In Adrianople he described fifteen Greek churches and one mosque, most unknown from other sources. The section on his negotiations and relations with Constantinopolitan Greeks offers invaluable testimony to their position under Ottoman rule in the late 16th century. Absent from all major collections (Blackmer, Atabey, etc.). A unique and invaluable source for the Levant.