Thevenot:” Reizen van der heere Thevenot in de welken gehandeld word van de Staaten….van d Archipel,Konstantinopolen,Heilig Land,Egypten…van Asia en Afrika.. .”. Amsterdam 1681

First Dutch edition, small 4to 21x16cm,contemporary full vellum ,slightly soiled, text clean and bright ,complete: engraved frontis [2],full page engraved portrait,486p.[4] and the 18  beautiful copper engraved plates (two folded)all plates with fine coloring, light marginal water stain in around ten pages ,overall a very good plus copy.

First edition of the beautiful and famous copper engraved plates of the Levant by Jan Van Luyken .Thevenot began his travels in 1655 returning in 1659.He had visited the Greek Archipelago, Constantinople, Anatolia and Egypt. His travel account is very praised. In a second trip ,in 1663-67, visited Syria and Persia .He died in Tabriz in 1667.The French original editions does not have any plate ,except  the authors portrait .The success of his journey initiated the Dutch publishers to prepare a translation and coupled it with many fine views of the Levant produced mainly by Van Luyken ,a famous Dutch painter who visited the Levant also in the middle of 17th century and had prepared fine drawings of Levantine life and places. The result was the best illustrated edition of Thevenot travels with plates with fantastic, most probable, contemporary coloring .This edition not in Atabey or Blackmer (Atabey 1215/17,French editions, Blackmer 1650,also French).Extremely Rare with finely colored plates.