First edition of both parts of this important work which established the standard depiction of peoples of the ottoman empire and the levant.

In addition to the sixty or so plates depicting Turkish Court, noble, military and other costume, the work illustrates the regional, religious or national costume of several other parts of the Turkish Empire. These include Greeks (10); Albanians (2); Jews (3); Hungarians (2); Wallachians (3); Bulgarians (2); Crimean Tartars (1); Armenians (5); Persians (2); Indians (2); Arabs (1); Barbary Coast (4); and Moors (1).

The plates for this work were commissioned by Charles de Ferriol (1652-1722), the French ambassador to the Porte between 1699 and 1709. The plates were engraved after drawings by the Flemish artist J.B. van Mour, who lived and worked in Constantinople for many years during the first part of the eighteenth century. It has been suggested that van Mour came to Constantinople with the entourage of Ferriol in 1699. When the paintings were complete, Ferriol helped Le Hay to publish the present prints of the pictures. Le Hay's work was an instant success and the plates quickly became the principal source of turqueries for artists and publishers throughout Europe. In recognition of van Mour's talents, he was granted the unique post of 'Peintre ordinaire du Roi en Levant' in 1725.

Van Mour's paintings (and the plates that derive from them) show Constantinople as a cosmopolitan place with Muslims and non-Muslims uniting in shared 'Ottoman' pleasures. Armenians, Franks, Greeks and Persians are shown drinking coffee, playing mankeh (a version of backgammon), or making music. One of the folding plates shows the famed Whirling Dervishes.

First edition; 2 vols in one (as intended), large folio (50 x 35 cm); [6 (title, blank, preface, advertisements)], [1]-26pp., copper-engraved music plate, copper-engraved title, 102 copper-engraved costume plates, of which 3 double-page, a touch of foxing to text only, a few marginal paper flaws, small tear and hole repaired to 100th plate; contemporary French mottled calf, gilt spine in eight compartments, gilt red morocco lettering-piece, board-edges gilt rolled, edges speckled green and red, joints and corners professionally restored, a little rubbing to extremities, a very good copy.

Atabey 429; Blackmer 591; Cohen de Ricci 619; Colas 1819, 1820; Lipperheide 413, 414.