Palaestina ex Monumentis Veteribus Illustrata, by Hadriani Relandi [Adriaan Reland / Reelant]. Utrecht (Trajecti Batavorum), 1714. Latin, some Greek, Hebrew and Arabic. Two volumes. First edition.
Study of Palestine. Contains 16 engraved plates (of which nine are folded), including a portrait of the author, maps and plans, an engraved frontispiece and a number of additional small engravings in the text.
Adriaan Reland (also known as Adriaan Reelant / Hadriani Relandi, 1676-1718) was a Dutch geographer, cartographer and philologist and one of the first Orientalists. Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Utrecht from 1701 and lecturer on the history of the Jewish people. In 1695, Reland was sent to Palestine, where he conducted an exhaustive geographical survey of biblical Palestine, visiting 2,500 sites mentioned in the Bible, Mishnah and Talmud. The results of his survey were recorded in this book.
Vol. I: [5] leaves, 511, [1] pp + [15] engraved plates. Vol. II: [2] leaves, [515]-1068 pp, [47] leaves + [1] engraved plate, 19 cm. Good overall condition. Stains to some leaves and plates. Tears to folded engraved plates (coarse tears to one of the folded plates at the beginning of the book - a large map of Palestine). Slightly trimmed margins to some of the engraved plates. Fine vellum bindings, with stains and slight defects. Binding of second volume is partly detached.
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Provenance: Collection of Hermann Meyer and his daughter Channah Sapir.