TOURNEFORT (Joseph Pitton de). Relation d'un voyage au Levant fait par ordre du Roy. Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1717; 2 volumes in-4 (247 x 186 mm), seeded calf, smooth spines decorated with gilt fleurons, gilt garland on covers (Bindings c. 1800). ORIGINAL EDITION illustrated with 152 plates: monuments, views of islands, coasts or villages, costumes, fauna, flora (by Aubriet). Tournefort was already a famous botanist, author of a new classification, professor and substitute for Fagon at the Jardin des Plantes, when Louis XIV sent him to the Levant to study natural history and geography as well as all the possibilities for trade. Accompanied by the painter Aubriet (who succeeded Nicolas Robert as painter of the King's vellum), he spent two years botanising and making observations in the Greek islands, Constantinople, the Black Sea, Armenia and Georgia, bringing back nearly 1,500 specimens of plants that were often previously unknown, a description of port defence and fortification systems, and notes on customs, habits, agriculture and trade. A VERY FINE COPY IN A FRESH AND LUXURIOUS BINDING. Some yellowed sections. Armorial stamp dated 1724 in the lower margin of the title.