CHARLES LINNAEUS:VOYAGES AND TRAVELS IN THE LEVANT IN THE YEARS 1749-1753 CONTAINING OBSERVATIONS IN NATURAL HISTORY, PHISICK, AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE WRITTEN ORIGINALLY IN SWEDISH BY THE LATE FREDERIC HASSELQUIST. LONDON 1766 First and only edition in English. In 8vo contemporary full leather with few wear in a joint, complete 456p. and the folded map of Eastern Mediterranean, text clean and bright, overall in very good condition, a nice copy. The great Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, sent his student, Fredric Hasselquist to explore the eastern Mediterranean. This work is a tragic but monumental piece of scientific history, representing one of the first systematic surveys of the Levant. Hasselquist was one of Linnaeus's apostles, a group of students sent across the globe to collect specimens and map the natural world according to the Linnaean system. In 1747, Linnaeus lamented that the natural history of the Holy Land was less known than that of the remote Indies. Hasselquist, despite in poor health and with no money, volunteered to fix this. From 1749 to 1752, Hasselquist traveled through Smyrna, the Greek islands and Cyprus, to the Holy Land. On his return journey in 1752, Hasselquist died in Smyrna at only 30 years old. After Hasselquist died, his creditors in Smyrna seized his vast collections and manuscripts. The Queen of Sweden personally paid off his debts to have the collections brought back to Sweden. Linnaeus then edited his student's notes and published them. The English edition has a very rare originally drawn unsigned map of Eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus, which has not appeared in any other publication. Atabey 564 (this edition), Blackmer 792 (French edition). Scarce