Two works, bound together, documenting the journey of Pietro Della Valle to the Orient. Italy, 1627-28. Italian and additional languages.

Pietro Della Valle (1586-1652), member of an aristocratic Italian family; composer and author. In the years 1614-26, he journeyed to the Holy Land, Egypt, Persia, and other places in the Orient, accompanied by the Dutch painter Jan Lucasz. van Hasselt (d. 1653), who used his paintbrush to capture the many different cultures and types of individuals he encountered in the course of the voyage.
In 1616, Della Valle met Sitti Maani, a woman from a Christian family belonging to Baghdad’s Assyrian Church. Having fallen in love with her, he asked for her hand in marriage. Upon his request, van Hasselt created a portrait of Maani, which was then sent to Della Valle’s family in Italy.
Around the year 1617, Della Valle and the people accompanying him arrived in Persia, where they were greeted by Shah Abbas I ("the Great"; 1571?-1629), regarded as one of the greatest leaders in Persian history, and one of the most influential figures in the annals of the Near East. The Shah was immensely impressed by van Hasselt’s work, and offered him the position of Official Court Painter, along with a salary of 1,000 gold coins. Van Hasselt accepted the offer and devoted his subsequent years to creating works specially commissioned by the Shah. During this period, he apparently produced paintings of the Shah’s household animals, depictions of scenes and decorations in the Shah’s palace in the city of Behshahr, and additional works.
Not a single original painting by van Hasselt is known to have survived. The only preserved evidence of his work comes from an engraved portrait of Sitti Maani which, following Maani’s death, was copied from van Hasselt’s original painting, and later printed in the memorial book dedicated to her.

The item presented here is a combination of the memorial book dedicated to Sitti Maani and Pietro Della Valle’s book about the Persian Shah, bound together:
1. "Funerale della signora Sitti Maani Gioerida della Valle", by Girolamo Rocchi. Rome: Erede di Bartolomeo Zannetti, 1627. Italian.
A memorial book dedicated to Della Valle’s wife, Sitti Maani, with three engraved plates: a portrait of Sitti Maani; the funeral bier upon which her body was laid; and a copy of her official seal. The title page of the book bears the coat-of-arms of the Della Valle family, with Maani’s personal "motto", in Syrian-Aramaic script, inserted into it.
2. "Delle conditioni di Abbas Re di Persia", by Pietro Della Valle. Venice: Francesco Baba (the name of the printer appears on the final page), 1628. Italian.
Biographical work on the subject of Shah Abbas I of Persia. Glued to the leaf opposite the title page is a hand-drawn portrait of the Shah (pencil).

[4] leaves, 125, [2] pages; 149, [1] pages, approx. 21.5 cm. Good condition. Stains and creases (mostly to first leaves). Minor worming. Several notations in ink. Parchment binding with strips of original spine glued onto existing spine. Slightly blemished.