Δορόσταμος Αθανάσιος (Dorostamos Athanasius): “Neueste Beschreibung derer Griechichen Christen in der Turckey,aus glaubwurdiger erzehlung Herrn Athanasius Dorostamus Archimandriten des Patriarchen zu Constantinopel .” Berlin 1737 First and only edition. In 8vo 18x11cm, contemporary full leather slightly rubbed at extremities, spine richly gilt, complete [24] 380p.[28] and the 11 copper engraved plates (two folded), as called for, text clean overall very good. Αθανάσιος Δορόσταμος (Athanasius Dorostamus c.1690-1750) was born in Patras and received the basic studies of that age to become a priest of the Orthodox Church during Venetian rule in Morea in the very early 18th century. He became diaconus in Patra and in his youth traveled to Damietta in Egypt and later visited the monastery of Sina and Jerusalem. In 1715, during the recapture of Peloponessus by the Turks, a janissary made him prisoner in Nafplio, but he finally escaped in Smyrna and from there to Constantinople where he entered to the Patriarchal circles. He had been sent later as Patriarchal envoy by Patriarch Jeremias (1716-1726) in Moldavia, where he spent time in Braila and had visited the still thriving Greek communities in Crimea where he negotiated the freedom of several Orthodox Russian slaves from the raids of the Tatars. In Moldavia he became Archimandrite and traveled extensively in the Balkans during the 1720s to settle differences between Christian bishops. He had visited Seres, Didimoticho and several other places in Macedonia and Thrace. All these journeys are described in his account. With the change in Patriarch in 1726 he lost his influence and retreated to Mount Athos where he spent several years. As a previous hard traveler he soon started to visit Greek communities in the Levant and abroad to collect money (ζητείες), mainly for the purchase of Greeks enslaved by the Turks. In 1735, this activity brought him in Berlin where he became friend with Jacob Elssner (1692-1750), a German Theologian and Counselor of the Prussian King, who convinced him to write a detailed account for the state of the Greek Christians in the Ottoman Levant. The plates have been drawn by Dorostamos himself, who, as many monks of Mount Athos, was familiar with painting and have been engraved by Schmidt. They represent a fine example of 18th century popular Greek painting. Most of the few surviving copies missed the plates, here present and complete. It is a fine travel account for 18th century Greeks in the Levant written by a Greek. Blackmer 546, not in Atabey .Extremely Rare.