A handsome first edition, with an engraved map showing the route taken between Moscow and Peking with 'the north front of Pekin' as a decorative inset.

In 1715, the Tsar sent one Volynaskiy as his Ambassador to the Court of Shah Soltan Hossein. Bell (1691-1780) was a young Scottish adventurer with some medical and surgical training, who was appointed, on the recommendation of friends with whom he was staying in Russia, as the Doctor to the Embassy. The book - the author's only one - was written years later from journals kept at the time, when Bell was about 70 years old. The second volume contains other accounts of embassies to Peking ('Journal of the Residence of Mr de Lange [...] at the Court of Pekin'), Derbent (Persia, 'with the army of Russia') and Constantinople.

'Printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis of Glasgow whose beautiful font enhances the value of the book' (DNB).

First edition; 2 vols, small 4to (24 x 19.5 cm); engraved folding map as frontispiece, a little creased; full contemporary speckled calf, gilt rolled board edges, spines in six gilt stamped compartments with contrasting gilt morocco lettering pieces, all edges speckled red, spines professionally restored, a near fine set; xvii, [3], 357, [2]; [2], 426, [1] pp.

Ghani 35; Blackmer 111; Cordier (Sinica), 2093.