[JEAN CHESNEAU]: VOYAGE DE GABRIEL DE LOUTZ,SEIGNEUR D ARAMON, A CONSTANTINOPLE EN PERSE EN EGYPTE ET EN PALESTINE. PARIS 1757 FIRST EDITION. Large Quarto,contemporary full leather rubbed at covers with few loss of leather,spine richly gilt,text clean and bright, complete 129 pages (all published), in a composite volume,overall in very good condition. Its inclusion in the Pièces fugitives pour servir à l'histoire de France (1759) is a classic example of 18th-century Enlightenment scholars rediscovering,publishing and preserving rare 16th-century manuscripts.Gabriel de Luetz, Baron d'Aramon, was the French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1546 to 1553.The narrative was written by Jean Chesneau, d'Aramon's secretary. It is one of the most vivid and detailed eyewitness accounts of the Ottoman Levant at its zenith. Chesneau describes the Ottoman Levant and how Ambassador d'Aramon actually accompanied Suleiman the Magnificent on his military campaign in eastern Asia Minor against Persia (1548). This was a rare instance for a Western traveler to witness the situation of Anatolia that time, particularly for its Christian inhabitants,completely cut then from the Christian world.Chesneau had lengthy discussions with local Christians auxiliaries in the Sultan army and present invaluable testimonies. The embassy traveled later through Palestine and Egypt. The text includes some of the earliest detailed French descriptions of the Pyramids of Giza and the Holy Sites in Jerusalem during the Ottoman era. Chesneau provides a sober and detailed look at the slave markets and the social hierarchy of the Sultan's court. The embassy included also the famous naturalist Pierre Belon, who collected botanical and zoological specimens and wrote an other account.This text is the bridge between Renaissance adventure in the Levant and Enlightenment scholarship. For the Marquis d'Aubais in 1759, printing Chesneau manuscript for the first time, was a way to show that France had long been a global power with sophisticated Eastern interests.