Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah.

fine Asprey binding

One of the greatest travel narratives ever published, this copy of Burton's Pilgrimage to Mecca has been bound in stunning full black morocco by Asprey. Originally founded in 1781, Asprey has been making bespoke and custom book bindings for over a hundred years.

Burton was the first English Christian to enter Mecca freely as a true Mohammedan pilgrim (travelling in disguise as an Afghan Pathan) and the first European to travel between the Holy Cities by the eastern route. Burton had originally intended to cross the peninsula but was frustrated by fierce fighting among the interior tribes. He spent a month at Medina before going on to Mecca where he performed all the rituals of the Hajj.

First edition; 3 vols, 8vo (23 x 15 cm); half-title in vol. III, 5 coloured chromolithograph plates, 8 tinted lithograph plates, 1 wood engraved plate, 1 folding map, 3 plans (of which 2 folding), publisher's ads at end of vol. I; particularly fine full black morocco by Asprey, the boards triple gilt panelled with foliate detail, one-line gilt panels to spines enclosing foliate devices, gilt panelled dentelles with moiré silk doublures and end leaves, contained within a leather-entry slip-case, an extremely fine set; xiv, [1], 388, 24; iv, 426; x, [1], 448pp.

Abbey (Travel), 368; Casada 53; Howgego IV, B95; Penzer pp.43-50.