Bruin, C., De [De Bruyn or Bruijn]
Reizen over Moskovie, door Persie en Indie: verrykt met driehondert kunstplaten, vertoonende de beroemste lantschappen en steden, ook de byzondere dragten, beesten, gewassen en planten, die door gevonden worden: voor al derzelver oudheden, en wel voornamentlyk heel uitvoerig, die van het heerlijke en van oudts de geheele werrelt door befaemde hof van Persepolis, by den Persianen Tchilminar genaemt. Alles door den Autheur zelf met groote naeukeurigheit na 't leven afgetekent, en nooit voor dezen in 't ligt gebragt.
Amsterdam, R. and G. Wetstein, J. Oosterwyk and H. van de Gaete, 1714. Folio (33.3 x 21.1 cm). Allegorical frontispiece (by Picart, dated 1711), title page (in red and black); engraved portrait of de Bruyn (by G. Kneller), [vi], 472, [xii] pp.; 260 numbered engraved plates (many double, folded), two large maps, and 34 large text engravings, not numbered, including portraits, views, etc. Contemporary blind ruled and embossed vellum. Spine with six raised bands, title written in ink, in a neat contemporary hand.
First edition, second issue of one of the most richly illustrated voyages through Russia, Persia (Iran) and adjacent countries and territories, made by the Dutch painter Cornelis de Bruin (as spelled on title page), or de Bruyn (as spelled in the portrait) (1652-1727). He went by sea from Amsterdam along the coast of Norway, above the polar circle to Archangel, and travelled southwards by river and overland through Russia and the Caspian Sea to Persia, the Gulf and by ship again onward to Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia), back to Persia, and homewards across the Mediterranean. It is an extensive work important to naval and travel history, and includes beautiful, large, panoramic views of, for instance, Archangel, Moscow, and "Spahan" (= Isfahan, Iran), some impressively long when unfolded. The work contains a good deal of zoological illustrations; hence it is recorded in Claus Nissen's Zoologische Buchillustration. Most illustrations are, as stated in the title, from drawings made on the spot by De Bruin himself. The work was dedicated to Anton Ulrich, Duke of Brunswyk and Lunenburg. This edition is identical to the 1711 edition published for the author by Willem and David Goerree. Provenance: armorial bookplate of former private owner David Dunlop "Merito", small pictorial bookplate of E. van Tongeren on front pastedown, and one small previous owner's stamp - "A. Noorderbroek Amsterdam" - on the first blank. Old Japanese paper reinforcements to the outer edge of the front flyleaf, a few plates may be from another copy (same issue), tiny weak bookseller's stamp in title page lower margin, a pencil annotation below the portrait of De Bruin, otherwise clean. In all, an excellent copy in a contemporary binding. The plates in a strong impression. Henze I, 378; Nissen ZBI, 631N; Tiele, 207, 209. Not in Diba.
