Voyage littéraire de la Grèce, ou Lettres sur les Grecs, anciens et modernes, avec un parallèle de leurs moeurs

Third and best illustrated edition with 10 very fine hors-texte plates including a frontispiece by Dalbou after Hoüel, 5 hors-texte plates by Laurent after Favray and 4 folding hors-texte plates by Laurent after Massit. The first three volumes contain all the letters on Greece as well as in the third volume the voyage to Italy, the last contains other opuscules by the author: Essays on the Elegies of Tibullus (followed by the translation of these), The Seasons and Light Poetry.
Numerous floral head- and tailpieces (flower baskets, carnations...).
Contemporary full porphyry sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with fleurons, roulette at tail. Red morocco title label, green morocco volume label. Triple fillet frame on covers. On the upper joint of volume I, small lacks of leather, on the lower joint the leather has a split with a lack, but without the joint being visible. Fragments of leather have also detached on other joints and the joints sometimes appear cracked, but no joint is open or truly split, only the leather shows some defects at the joints. On the lower joint of volume I, nibbling, also on the upper joint of volume 3. Paper generally quite fresh, sometimes a few spots in the upper margins or on the verso of the engravings. Overall, very fine copy.
Broader than its title suggests, the Literary Voyage of Greece contains numerous information on the Turks, Armenians and their customs, and naturally the peoples of Greece. The letters are the work of a merchant residing in Constantinople, Monsieur Guys, addressed to an art lover, Bourlat de Montredont. Deeply enamored with belles-lettres and research on Antiquity, the author in his description of Greece, its customs and practices, draws his material from ancient writers by establishing constant parallels with modern Greece, showing how much all Greek literature is found in it. Each letter bears on a subject, many concern art, but some more specific ones deal with furniture, jewelry, makeup, festivals, proprieties, baths, architecture, and naturally, a domain particularly interesting to the author: commerce and navigation. Certain letters are additions, and treat usages among the Turks, Jews... An ambitious project by a man anchored in the reality of his time (and who spent more than 30 years in the Levant), the Literary Voyage of Greece identifies in modern Greece all the heritage of Antiquity, and makes modern Greeks the direct heirs, descendants of ancient Greeks. The author thus renews interest in voyages to Greece. Before its time, it is one of the first works of anthropology.