Lot 320: POSTEL, Guillaume (1510-1581). La Republique des Turcs, & là ou l'occasion s'offrera, des meurs & loy de tous Muha-medistes . Poitiers: Enguilbert de Marnef, 1560. 3 parts in one volume, 4° (227 x 157mm), woodcut device on title and part

POSTEL, Guillaume (1510-1581). La Republique des Turcs, & là ou l'occasion s'offrera, des meurs & loy de tous Muha-medistes. Poitiers: Enguilbert de Marnef, 1560. 3 parts in one volume, 4° (227 x 157mm), woodcut device on title and part titles, with the two blanks. (Title lightly dust-soiled, some marginal staining and soiling, quire Q in part one with worm track at margin.) Contemporary vellum, later manuscript title on spine (recased with new pastedowns, soiled, ties lacking).

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. In 1535, François I appointed Postel as official interpreter to the embassy of Jean de La Fort to the Turkish sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, in Constantinople; the great linguist visited the city again in 1549. His book, with its very positive account of Ottoman society, was used as one of the sources of Turkish illustration in Montaigne's Essais (1580). Atabey 977: 'Postel's work on the Ottoman Empire ... represents the fruition of his experiences in the East and his appreciation of Islam' (refers to this second copy); Adams P-2015 (second issue); Brunet IV, 839; Göllner II, 1005; this edition not in Blackmer.