ANTONIO GONSALES: Hierusalemsche Reyse vanden eerw. Pater Anthonius Gonsales minder brobder recollect in ses Boeken: I Vervattende de Reyse uyt Antwerpen tot de have Jerusalem, II Beschryft vant H.Landt, III Wort Syrien,IV Ryck van Egypten, V De weder komste uyt het Heyling Landt tot Antwerpen VI Rare boomen, bloemen kruyden… Antwerpen 1673 First and only edition of one of the rarest and most detailed 17th-century travel accounts of the Levant. In 4to (20 × 16 cm). Late 18th-century leather over boards. Volume one (of two). A second volume was published later. Text mostly clean and bright, with some light wear in a few pages, occasional isolated spots, or faint foxing. Frontis title page and first five leaves only with light waterstain, engraved frontis title, [6], 821 pp., [8], and twenty (20) full-page copper engravings including two maps. Overall very good condition, and nicely illustrated. Antonio Gonsalez (1604–1683), a Spanish Franciscan father, traveled in the Levant during the 1660s. As Flanders was part of the Spanish Kingdom, he settled there and compiled his pilgrimage diary in the early 1670s, dedicating it to the Count of Allamont, who financed the publication. The sudden death of Eugeen-Albert, Count of Allamont (1609–1673), in the very year of printing, caused severe financial problems: publication was disrupted, and almost all copies are incomplete. Only a handful of complete sets of both volumes survive, and copies differ in the number of plates and parts preserved. (Ref: Charles Libois, Voyage en Égypte du Père Antonius Gonsalez, Paris, Institut Orientale, 1977). Volume one describes his journey from Antwerp to Jerusalem, recorded almost daily. After the usual itinerary through Italy, he arrived in Zakynthos on 27 December 1663, remaining a few days before sailing south of Crete, then devastated by the Cretan War, toward Cyprus. He spent over a month on Cyprus, giving long and detailed descriptions of the island. Two chapters (around twenty pages) are devoted entirely to Cyprus. In late February 1664 he reached the Holy Land. Later sections cover Palestine and Syria, including Antioch and Aleppo. Gonsalez provides particularly valuable accounts of the presence of Oriental Christians in the Holy Land Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, and others. Absent from all major collections of the Levant.