Add MS 8779-8780

German, Arabic, Italian, and Latin. Autographs. The relazione is the result of a two-year journey to Egypt undertaken in 1663-1665 by the Dominican friar, traveller and orientalist Johann Michael Wansleben (1635-1679). The text is dedicated to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand II de' Medici. The two MSS. contain drafts respectively of the original text in German (Add. 8779, ff. 1-105) and of its Italian translation (Add. 8780, ff. 1-69v). According to an autograph note in Latin (Add. 8779, f. 126v) the text was translated into Italian by a Roman priest, Don Giovanni Emanuele, and revised by the Florentine abbot Maroscelli, possibly identifiable with the scholar and bibliophile Francesco Marucelli (1625-1713), founder of the Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence. A revised version of the German text was published as Johann Michael Wansleb's bisher ungedruckte Beschreibung von Aegypten im Jahre 1664 in H. E. G. Paulus, Sammlung der merkwürdigsten Reisen in den Orient, vol. 3 (Iena, 1794), pp. 1-122 (B.L. copy 1426.g.23), followed in the same volume (pp. 123-412) by the German translation of the account of Wansleben's second journey to Egypt (1671-1673) dedicated to Cardinal D'Estrée and originally published in French as Nouvelle relation en form de journal d'un voyage fait en Egypte par le P. Vansleb, R. D., en 1672 & 1673 (Paris, 1677). A revised version of the Italian text was published in Paris in 1671 as Relazione dello stato presente dell'Egitto, nella quale si da esattissimo ragguaglio delle cose naturali del paese: del Governo Politico, che vi è: Della Religione de' Copti: Dell'econonomia delle Egizii, e delle magnifiche Fabriche, che ancor'hoggidì vi si ci veggono. Scritta dal Signor Giovanni Michele Vanslebio, d'Effordia, hora Religioso dell'ordine de' Predicatori (B.L. copy 793.c.25), with a dedicatory preface to the son of Ferdinand de' Medici, Cosimo III, who had succeeded his father in 1670. For Wansleben see A. Pougeois, Vie et voyages de Vansleb savant orientaliste et voyageur (Paris, 1869); for an Englis translation of the account of Wansleben's second journey to Egypt (1671-1673) see The present state of Egypt; or a new relation of a late voyage into that kingdom performed in the years 1672 and 1673 by F. Vansleb, R. D. (London, 1678). In both MSS. the relazione is divided into five parts, subdivided into chapters. Autograph corrections throughout. Stamps (Add. 8779, f. 1, and Add. 8780, f. 3) 'biblioth / h.f. / J770', probably from the Biblioteca Falconieri (possibly identifiable respectively with Falconieri MSS. 36 and 37 in Guilford's catalogue Add. 8220, f. 33v). Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. Purchased, together with Add. 8781, 8783, and 8803, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 170 (part).

Paper. Two volumes.