LA CROIX (Édouard de). Memoires... contenans diverses relations tres-curieuses de l'Empire othoman. Paris, Veuve A. Cellier, 1684. 2 volumes in one in-12, stiff vellum, smooth spine, speckled edges (contemporary binding). Rare first edition, shared between Claude Barbin and the widow of Antoine Cellier. The diplomat Édouard de La Croix (c. 1640-1704) stayed in the Ottoman Empire as embassy secretary in Constantinople, under the Marquis de Nointel, from 1670 to 1679. His descriptions are not without ulterior motives: he would like to encourage Louis XIV, to whom the work is dedicated, to attack the Turks. On his return to France, he also published Guerres des Turcs avec la Pologne, la Moscovie et la Hongrie in 1689, État général de l'Empire othoman in 1695 and La Turquie chrétienne the same year. A fine copy in contemporary vellum from the library of Count Christoph Wenzel von Nostitz (1648-1712), with armorial bookplate. Occasional foxing and spotting. Hage Chahine, n°2539 - Atabey, n°649 - missing in Blackmer.