4to [21 x 15.5 cm]. [1]ff, (10), 496pp, (6), plus four leaves of engraved plans and with occasional mis-numerations. Insignificant printing error to first leaf of dedication not affecting legibility, repaired upper blank margin on leaf Ggi, not affecting text. Bound in handsome near-contemporary calf, skillfully rebacked with gilt florets and title label to spine. A crisp and clean copy.

Rare first edition of this travel guide to the Ottoman Empire, doubling as a virulent call for a latter-day crusade against the Turks. The author, a soldier and traveler turned monk, became consul at Damietta in Egypt in 1644 before returning to Europe. His detailed travelogue covers a great deal of Egypt and the Barbary Coast but is also preceded by a radical yet comprehensive military proposal to overthrow the Ottoman Empire and divide the spoils between the princes of Europe.

Books III-V give an account of the author’s voyages in the Levant between 1638 and 1647. Coppin notes the French Capuchins he meets in Cairo (giving a list of names!), the various Christian sects surviving under Ottoman rule, and includes a surprising amount of ethnographic detail on, for example, the different sorts of turbans worn in Cairo; Turkish food; the celebration of Ramadan; etc. Foremost in Coppin’s mind, however, is evidently the military strength of the Ottoman Empire, and he includes many notes on fortifications and troop strength. His travels take him to the Pyramids (p. 261) where he makes calculations on their orientation and notes signs of a break-in, as well as to a city which specializes in mummies - “so esteemed in the Venetian republic”. Coppin includes reports he has gleaned concerning Arabia Felix and the Arabs of the desert, noting that the islands of Bahrain are considered an excellent fishing ground (p. 321). Ironically, on the very last leg of Coppin’s return journey, from Livorno to Provence, he is finally taken captive by pirates.

Despite his otherwise commodious experience of Muslim lands, Coppin returned to Europe convinced that Europe was at a crossroads and would soon be overrun by the mighty Turks. Books I and II thus present Coppin’s notable proposal to unite the Christian princes of Europe in a Holy Crusade against the Ottoman Empire, the likes of which had not been seen in 400 years. Treaties of political peace between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire made many Early Modern ecclesiastics uneasy, but few went as far as Coppin in inciting a new age of crusades against the Turks.

“Frère Jean Coppin, in 1686, saw Europe and the Turks as engaged in a holy war and Europe as a bouclier [shield] which was under constant threat from Turkish incursion. Lamenting French inaction during the Siege of Vienna [1683], Coppin’s regret is representative of what has been characterized by Edward Said as a great ‘trauma’ which hung over European civilization; the ‘Ottoman peril’” (Veiled Encounters: Representing the Orient in 17th-Century French Travel, p. 132). Addressed to the sovereigns of Europe, Coppin laments the piracy which European merchants are subject to, the restrictions on voyages and trade with the East Indies which they face, and the enslavement of Christian Europeans by the Turks, which he puts at 7-8,000 (p. 407). The four engraved plates show schematic illustrations of  ‘machines of war’ he has designed himself to combat the Turkish forces. Once the Balkan states have been retaken, Coppin’s army will march on to Constantinople, Jerusalem, and beyond, reclaiming areas like Anatolia, so rich in Classical Western heritage. The Venetians, promises Coppin, will have Albania; the Holy Roman Emperor can claim Hungary, Bulgaria, and Macedonia as his own; the English shall have Thessaly; and so on.

Three issues of the present work have been identified in the literature, with variant imprints and no established precedence; OCLC shows Princeton, Michigan, and Columbia holding copies of this title under various imprints.

* Gay, 338; Blackmer, 402; cf. Michael Harrigan, Veiled Encounters: Representing the Orient in 17th-Century French Travel (2008); Nouvelle Biographie Generale.

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