Le Navigationi Et Viaggi, Fatti Nella Turchia, Di Nicolo De' Nicolai Del Delfinato, Signor D'Arfevilla, Cameriere, & Geografo ordinario del Re di Francia, con diverse singolarità viste, & offerate in quelle parti dall'Autore. Novamente tradotto di Francese in Italiano da Francesco Dlori da Lilla, Aritmetico. Con sessantasette figure naturali, si d'huomini come di donne, secondo la varietà delle nationi, de i loro portamenti, de' gesti, de gli habiti, delle leggi, de' riri, de' costumi, & de' modi del vivere in te,po di pace & di guerra. Con Molte varie, & belle historie avvenute nel nostro tempo. Con due Tavole, l'una di Capitoli, & l'altra delle materie principali.
[Quatre premiers livres des navigations et peregrinations orientales de N. de Nicolay., Italian., 1580.]
Imprint
In Venetia,: Presso Francesco Ziletti,, Anno, 1580.
Physical Description
[24], 192 p.: [67] full-page illus.; 292 mm. (Octavo.)
General Note
Signatures: a8, b4, A-M8 (with D3 misnumbered D2 and M8 blank). Page 97 is misnumbered as 79; pages 143-190 are misnumbered as 145-192.
Contents
[T.p., dedic.] - Tavola Particolare De' Quattro Libri Delle Navigationi ... - Tavola Nella Quale Per Ordine Dell' Alfabeto Si Trovano Le Materie Principali ... - Proemio In Lode Delle Peregrinationi ... - [Text with illus.].
Responsibility Note
No illustration is signed. Mortimer states that the sixty illustrations copied from the French edition of 1568 had been drawn by Nicolay, and that in that edition the plates were signed by 'L.D.', the engraver Louis Danet. She adds that ' Ziletti's engraver copied the signature by mistake on one of his plates, leaf D5v' [p.58], but this signature is not present in the Royal Academy's copy.
The decorations are also unsigned.
This edition is dedicated by Francesco Ziletti to Giacomo Boncompagno, Duca di Sora.
References
Harvard College Library Department Of Printing And Graphic Arts Catalogue Of Books And Manuscripts Part II: Italian 16th Century Books Compiled by Ruth Mortimer Volume II (1974), no. 319, p.466-7; R. Colas, Bibliographie Générale Du Costume Et De La Mode (1933 and repr.), no. 2204, p.794-5.
Summary Note
This Italian translation had first been published in 1576, in Antwerp. The French original had been published in 1568 at Lyon (Les quatre premiers livres des navigations - though no more than four were published). (An English translation was published in 1585 as The navigations, peregrinations and voyages, made into Turkie.)
In 1551 the author, Nicolas de Nicolay, who was a soldier and a cartographer, had travelled with the French ambassador to Constantinople. This account of his journey is in four books - the first describing the voyage to Algiers, Malta and Tripoli, the second the voyage through the Aegean islands to Constantinople, the third and fourth the people of Constantinople and Hadrianople (not only Turks but also Persians, Arabs, Jews, Armenians, Macedonians and Greeks).
Sixty illustrations are copies of the plates of the original edition - which had been the first to show Middle Eastern clothing in detail. But seven illustrations are new to this edition (leaves K4v [p.154] and M2v to the end of the volume [pp. 182, 184, 186, 188, 190, 192]). The illustrations are captioned, and show Turks, Greeks, Arabs and others in distinctive clothing. One of the seven new illustrations shows the Patriarch of Constantinople in street dress.
The work also has a title-page vignette (Ziletti's device), headpieces and decorated initials.
Provenance
The front pastedown is inscribed in pencil, 'S:A:H', i.e. S.A. Hart, librarian of the Royal Academy 1864-81.
Copy Note
The last, blank leaf (M8) is not present.
Binding Note
18th-century mottled calf; rebacked and recornered ca. 1990, brown morocco spine-lebel lettered 'Nicolai. Navigationi'.
French - Travel - Turkey - Istanbul - Edirne - Greece - North Africa - Mediterranean Region - History - 16th century
Turks - Greeks - Costume - Dress - Social life and customs - Turkey - Istanbul - Edirne - Mediterranean Region - Description and travel - History - 16th century
Travel literature - Memoirs - France - Italy - 16th century
Translations from French - Translations into Italian - Italy - 16th century
Pictorial works - Italy - 16th century