JEAN ERDIC: En Bulgarie et en Roumelie Mai-Juin 1884. Paris 1885 First and only edition. In 8vo (19x12 cm). Contemporary publisher’s paper covers, rubbed. Text generally clean and bright with a few scattered light spots. Complete: [10], 386 p. Overall in good condition. Jean Erdic, a French traveler and journalist, toured the eastern Balkans in 1884, recording his impressions in a lengthy account based faithfully on his daily calendar. He visited extensively the newly independent Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia (Ανατολική Ρωμυλία), an autonomous province established by the Treaty of Berlin (1878) and absorbed into Bulgaria in 1885. This is one of the very few travel accounts devoted to Eastern Roumelia, a region covering the upper valley of the Evros river, then a multinational land with substantial Greek populations in major towns such as Philippoupolis, Stenimahos, and others. Erdic’s visit coincided with the final years of the region’s autonomy, before the failed experiment of a multinational state gave way to Bulgarian nationalist incorporation (1885). His book offers an invaluable last testimony to the thriving Greek communities of Roumelia, which dispersed or declined soon after, ending millennia of continuous presence. A rare and important account, never reprinted.