Francois Pouqueville: Voyage en Morée, à Constantinople, en Albanie, et dans plusieurs autres parties de l'Empire Ottoman. Paris 1805 First edition,in 8vo, complete in three volumes, contemporary leather over boards, two maps and three more engravings, text clean with some uniform browning or spotting in few pages, overall in very good condition. The account chronicles a period of captivity rather than a standard tour. Pouqueville was captured by Barbary pirates and handed over to Ottoman authorities. He was first held in Navarino and later Tripolitsa. Because he was a doctor, he was allowed some freedom to treat local officials, which gave him a unique perspective on the region's people and customs. Later moved to the infamous Prison of the Seven Towers (Yedikule) in Constantinople, where he spent two years. Much of the book was based on a journal he kept in a secret code to hide his observations from Turkish guards. The publication was a massive success and was quickly translated into English, German, and Italian. It served as Pouqueville’s credentials for his later diplomatic career; following its success, Napoleon appointed him Consul General to the court of Ali Pasha in Ioannina. His writings are credited with helping spark the Philhellenic movement in Europe, as he was one of the first Westerners to provide a detailed, sympathetic look at the Greeks' condition under Ottoman rule.