Cornaro Flaminio :”CRETA SACRA sive deepiscopis utriusque ritus Graeci et Latini in Insula Cretae” .Venezia 1755 First and only edition .In 4to 23,5x17,5cm,contemporary vellum slightly rubbed over fine contemporary Italian boards,2 volumes complete [12] LXXVIIIp. [2] 327p.,[1]458p.[2],five copper engravings in total as called for,2 maps of Crete, 2 views and one Episcopal seal from Crete. Small clear stamp on both volumes title pages:” Constantino Cumano Trieste”: THE PERSONAL COPY OF KONSTANTINOS KOUMAS, internally clean and fine ,a very good copy. Cornaro Flaminio (1693-1778) was a Venetian scholar and politician. As Crete was a long time Venetian colony (1205-1669), he compiled the only account devoted exclusively to Crete during the 18th century ,a period of strict Ottoman control on the island .The work is in the first part an account of the Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic rites in Crete and provides detailed information on the subject, but includes , in all the second volume, invaluable primary sources for Crete, from the Venetian archives and other sources ,published in first edition as: the fine 15th century account of Christophorus Bondelmonti :Descriptio Cretae, many Greek inscriptions from Crete ,extremely rare Greek Martyria from the island published first time in the original Greek ,as the Μαρτυριον των Αγιων Δεκα των εν Κρήτη,το Μαρτυριον του Αγιου οσιομάρτυρος Ανδρέου του εν τη Κρίσει etc, as also the famous 30 pages account, in Greek, ΑΛΩΣΙΣ ΚΡΗΤΗΣ by Θεοδοσίου Διακόνου and many other precious information, from the island ,for the island .Illustrated with two very rare maps of Crete (neither in Zacharakis !!!) and views. Overall a kind of encyclopedia for Crete and the very first work devoted to the island (with the exception of the Cretan war accounts of previously century ) .It is not a surprise that it has been carefully inserted to Konstantinos Koumas (1777-1836) personal library (stamp at titles) .K.Koumas, the leading figure of Greek enlightenment lost his first library when he was obliged to leave the Levant with the beginning of the Greek revolution .It had been confiscated by the Turks and destroyed .He escaped to Tergesti (Trieste) where he re-gathered a library regarding Greece and the Levant .The work had not appeared in auctions since Sothebys Blackmer s sale in 1989. Blackmer 405,not in Atabey. Unique account for Crete. Extremely Rare and with a fine provenance ,the personal copy of the leading figure of the Greek enlightenment.