JEAN BAPTIST GERMAIN: Recueil de Formules pour les Consuls et les Chanceliers des echelles du Levant et de Barbarie, precede d un précis des declarations du Roy, ordonnances, reglements et arrest concernant les echelles du Levant. Paris 1744 First and only edition of a primary source for the Levant. Large in 4to 26 x 20 cm, contemporary full leather, text remarkably clean for a manual, with only some light waterstaining in the lower margins of a few pages. Complete title with fine engraved device, 115 p. Overall in very good condition. As France developed several trading outposts (échelles) in the Levant during the 18th century, a manual for the consuls was greatly needed. Germain (1701–1781), an 18th century diplomat and Occitan writer from Marseilles, the main French port for the Levant, gathered in one publication all relevant material, providing a practical manual. These publications, by their nature, were mostly lost, but they contained invaluable information on trade and daily life in the Levant, as the consul acted both as notary for all French subjects and as leader of the local Levantine community. According to the Capitulations, all foreign subjects in the Levant and their actions were under the jurisdiction of their nation. The book includes an extraordinary collection of documents, ranging from inheritance formulas to trade negotiation acts, purchase contracts for sailing boats, auction procedures for merchandise, and much more. Each outpost in the Levant was governed by a committee elected by the local traders under the consul. An invaluable primary source, a rarity, absent from all major collections for the Levant.