MANDELSLO (Johann Albrecht von). Voyages célèbres et remarquables, fait de Perse aux Indes orientales. Amsterdam, Michel-Charles Le Cène, 1727. 2 volumes in-folio, bradel brown spotted boards, smooth threaded spine, smooth edges (19th century binding). First French edition of this important account of travels in Asia, first published in Leiden by Van der Aa in 1719, and reissued in 1727 by Michel-Charles Le Cène with a title eight years younger. The work was edited and published after Mandelslo's death by the Duke of Holstein's librarian and mathematician, Adam Olearius, a friend and travelling companion of the author, and translated into French by Adam de Wicquefort, the famous author of Advis fidelle aux véritables hollandois (1637). This work contains Mandelslo's travels in the East between 1638 and 1640. Born in Mecklenburg in 1616, Mandelslo followed the Duke of Holstein's embassy to Russia and Persia; he visited India, Madagascar and Ceylon, but never went to China. He died of smallpox in Paris in 1644. Beautiful and interesting engraved intaglio illustration including a portrait of the author, 44 plates out of text - including 21 maps and plans and 23 views, scenes and costumes, often double-page or folding -, and 19 mid-page figures in the text, in the manner of Romeyn de Hooghe's followers. A very fine, wide-margined and fresh copy from the library of the Austrian Counts of Schönborn-Buchheim, with bookplate and call number label on the first boards. Cordier, Indosinica, 883 - Cordier, Sinica, 2077 - Cordier, Japonica, 367 - Lust, n°342 - Chadenat, n°5094.