Royal MS 17 C X

'THE THINGES that were scene and hearde by me, Josaphat Barbaro, citezein of Venice, on twoo voiages that I made, thone vnto Tana (Azov, in Russia) and thother into Persia': translation by William Thomas, Clerk of the Council to Edward VI, of Giosafat Barbaro's Viaggio ... alla Tana. Viaggio ... in Persia, Venice, 1543, 1545. With a dedication to the King, as a new. year's gift, n. d. [1551-1553]. Autograph. Edited for the Hakluyt Society by Lord Stanley of Alderley, 1873. Barbaro began his journey to Tana in 1436, remained there sixteen years, and returned home along the banks of the Volga to Moscow, and thence through Poland and Germany. His journey to Persia (f. 46) he undertook in 1471, as Venetian Ambassador, returning in 1478.

Paper; ff. 126. Quarto. 81/4 in. x 6 in. Circ. 1550-1552. Original binding [by Berthelet] of tooled light brown leather, with black strap-work, the arms of England and crown in the centre within a circle surrounded by flames and enclosed in an interlaced lozenge and rectangle within another rectangle. Rubbing in the National Art Library, S. Kensington, Cat. 1894, p. 145 ; and for the same tools used for a binding for Queen Mary see W. Y. Fletcher, Engl. Bookbindings, 1895, pl. xvi. Not in the old catalogues.