[ANTHOINE DESBARRES]: L Estat present de l Archipel. Paris 1678 First and only edition of one of the rarest accounts for the Greek Archipelago. 8vo (15 × 9 cm). Later fine leather, with marginal wear, a very attractive binding. Complete in two volumes: title [1], 215 pp.; title [1], 206 pp. Without the portrait, as in the Blackmer copy and almost all others. Some worming in the lower margin of c. 20 pages in the second volume; some scattered light foxing in both volumes. Overall very good, a lovely set. Anthoine Desbarres travelled in the entourage of the Marquis de Nointel through the Levant in 1673–74. His account is the only one to be published contemporaneously from this sumptuous voyage, and it covers exclusively the Greek islands of the Archipelago. It is among the earliest, most accurate and best descriptions of the Greek islands and also one of the rarest. Desbarres was clearly a talented writer, and as Nointel himself observed: avait la spécialité, en voyage, de courir les aventures galantes et de se poser en héros d’invraisemblables bonnes fortunes (Vandal: Les Voyages de Nointel, Paris, 1900). Reference: Blackmer 95; not in Atabey; absent from almost all other major travel collections for the Levant.