Ten Centuries of Turkish History
With 41 Woodcut Figures
[TURKEY/COSTUME] Anonymous. Neu er'etes Amphitheatrum Turcicum, worinnen der kern T'cher geschichten, von grundsetzung ihrer religion und reiches... biss auf die allerneueste und gegenwartige zeiten beschrieben... Erfurt, gedruckt und verlegt von Johann Michael Funcken, 1724.
Folio [34 x 21 cm], 172 pp., (2) ff. with 41 half-page woodcuts in text. Bound in contemporary half calf with speckled paper over boards, spine with raised bands, worn paper title label on spine, edges chipped. Two modern bookplates on front pastedown; an old (1880s?) stamp of J. B. Anderhub on title. Title soiled with tear in blank upper corner, light toning throughout; paper flaw on p. 89, affecting 2 words. Generally very good.
$4,800 Rare illustrated history of Turkey, featuring 41 charming woodcuts of costumed military, religious and artisanal figures. The wide-ranging history of the Ottoman Empire and its antecedents begins with the birth of the "devil prophet Muhamed" in the sixth century, and continues up until the date of the work's publication, 1724. The bulk of the book is devoted to the events of the 16th and 17th centuries, replete with profiles of rulers and generals, as well as grisly battle statistics carefully cross-referenced in other contemporary histories.
The illustrations, which are interspersed every other page, are framed in floral woodcut borders. Not specifically linked to the chapters they illustrate, the costumed figures include the 'Turkish Kaiser' Mustapha II (p. 9), a military leader bedecked with feathered wings (p. 13), Janissaries and foot soldiers. Religious figures, including a monk and a Vizier, alternate with important courtiers such as the royal sword bearer and the Kislar Agassi, prefect of the women of the Emperor, who during this period was a black eunuch (p. 85). There are also more prosaic figures, including a cook, coffee and candy sellers, and an anonymous old man in a winter cloak. Only one woman, a dancer, is depicted (p. 153). Perhaps aiming to underscore the cultural differences between Turkish society and his German audience, the artist depicts a boy aged 6 or 7 waiting for his coming-of-age circumcision ceremony, and also "a Turk in love," so distraught at the appearance of his lover behind a window that he is shown in the midst of the bloody act of slitting his wrist.
The Amphitheatrum was issued in five parts between 1722 and 1728, with volumes devoted to Europe, Africa, America, South Asia, and Turkey, each with separate title pages and pagination. Sets are very seldom found complete. The work, for which both the text and the woodcuts are unascribed, was reprinted in the late 1730s
* Sabin 52,360; Lipperheid. 35; Colas 2187; JCB I.3.333; Palmer 364; not in Atabey, Blackmer.
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