VILLAMONT Jacques, “Les voyages du seigneur de Villamont, chevalier de lOrdre de Hierusalem”, Arras, 1598. Small 8vo (10x14.5cm), pp. [16], 677, [9].

First printed in Paris in 1595, a second edition appeared a year after with the current Aras 1598 counted as the 3rd edition.

The Lord of Villamont left Brittany in June 1588. After visiting Italy he embarked in Venice in April 1589 for the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Via the islands of the Ionian Sea, the Peloponnese, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus, he arrives at Jaffa from where he takes the makes the pilgrimage route of Palestine and Syria. He also visited Egypt before returning back to his homeland 39 months later. His work was among the most popular travel accounts of tits time, and was printed 18 times until in the following twenty years after its first printing (1595).

Contemporary full vellum with title handwritten on spine. External soiling, wear along edges and small tears along joints. Worming from pp.665 to the end, first sheets with lightly chipped edges, light toning throughout, few sheets with brown spots. . Ex-libris “Βιβλιοθήκη Σπ. Λοβέρδου” in gilt on pastedown.

The VERY RARE Aras 1598 edition: Not in Brunet, Not in Atabey, Not in Adams, Graesse VI 317 (for a 1609 edition), Blackmer 1733 (for the 1600 edition).