1835 – Greece and the Levant by Rev. Richard Burgess
 
First Edition / Rare Antiquarian Leather-Bound Travel Book / With Maps & Illustrations
 
An Elegant 190-Year-Old Travel Classic, Involving a Firsthand Journey Through Greece and Constantinople, Complete with Two Volumes Bound as One.
 
This 1835 first edition of Greece and the Levant by the Rev. Richard Burgess offers a rare glimpse into the Eastern Mediterranean through the eyes of an early 19th-century English clergyman and traveller. Subtitled A Diary of a Summer’s Excursion in 1834, with Epistolary Supplements, it is an evocative and detailed record of a four-month tour through the classical world – accompanied by visual materials and presented in a handsome antiquarian binding.
 
Published in London by Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, and printed by A. Spottiswoode, this complete copy includes both Volume I and Volume II bound together.
 
Features & Highlights:
Original full calf leather binding over boards with gilt tooling, raised bands, and panelled boards
Embossed spine lettering, gilt detail, and remnants of the original black label
All-edge marbled pages, with matching marbled endpapers and pastedowns
Frontispiece fold-out map of Constantinople’s topography
Additional map on p.110, plus several in-text illustrations
Detached original red ribbon marker
Original publisher’s catalogue included at rear
 
Condition:
The binding is intact, robust, and full of antique charm, showing appropriate age-related wear: light rubbing, small spine rips, bumping to corners, scratches, and some label loss. Please see photographs for full detail.
Internally, the pages are lightly tanned but clean and uncreased, with just the occasional foxing or mark that does not interfere with legibility or imagery. A neat 1851 pen inscription appears on the reverse of the front free endpaper. The fold-out map and all 623 pages (Vol. I: 312, Vol. II: 311) are present, secure, and unmarked, with no loose or missing pages.
 
Provenance Note:
Though unsigned beyond the early 1851 inscription, the book’s condition and presentation suggest it was respectfully owned and likely valued as both a travel narrative and scholarly text.
 
Dimensions:
Approx. 15 cm × 10.3 cm × 3.7 cm
Weight: 427 grams
 
A rarely encountered travel work in first edition form, this is a beautiful addition for collectors of early travel writing, classical studies, Ottoman history, or antique bindings.