![OPTICS. 'Optica', possibly authorial manuscript in an informal Italian hand, with some emendations, [17th century]. Title, preface and text in two parts, respectively comprising 13 and 10 propositions, 30 full-page diagrams (numbered 1-32, lacking no. 14, nos 27-28 on a single page), depicting the eye and the ways in which images of objects are projected onto it. In Latin, 97 pages, 210 x 150mm. Contemporary speckled calf, title in gilt on spine (the binding rather worn, more so to the spine).](https://staging.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/CKS/2017_CKS_14298_0010_000(optics_optica_possibly_authorial_manuscript_in_an_informal_italian_han040710).jpg?w=1)
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OTTOMAN HISTORY -- François Pétis DE LA CROIX (1653-1713). ‘Le Serail des Empereurs othomans’, [c.1670s-80s], contemporary manuscript copy, dedicatory epistle to the King [Louis XIV] subscribed as secretary to the Embassy in Constantinople, table of contents, preface and text in two books of 26 and 18 chapters. In French, 431 pages, 195 x 155mm, contemporary pagination (occasional soiling and staining). Contemporary red morocco gilt (minor loss and worming to bottom of spine); Modern slipcase. Provenance: probably the manuscript described as lot 18 in the sale of the Bibliothèque du feu M. T. de M., Drouot, 26 April 1897.
A detailed description of the Ottoman Harem by a young French traveller. The dedicatory epistle tends rather to diminish the splendours of the Harem and its inhabitants in relation to those of Louis XIV and the Louvre. The text itself describes the Harem’s position and architecture, its inhabitants from the gardeners to the eunuchs, its rules and discipline and its various activities; the second book is devoted to the women of the Harem, and to its kitchens and stables. The son of the Arabic interpreter at the French court (an office he was to inherit in 1695), De la Croix was sent to Constantinople in 1670 at the age of 17 in order to study the languages of the Levant. He was the author of a volume of memoirs relating to Turkey, conserved in manuscript at the BnF (Français 6094), which includes a dedicatory epistle to Louis XIV dated 26 March 1682, and published a number of volumes of Orientalist tales in later life, as well as editing the posthumously-published travels of Jean Thévenot (see Koç I, p.123). The copyist’s hand of the present manuscript changes after p.336, and the pagination jumps to p.346, although the text is apparently continuous.
A detailed description of the Ottoman Harem by a young French traveller. The dedicatory epistle tends rather to diminish the splendours of the Harem and its inhabitants in relation to those of Louis XIV and the Louvre. The text itself describes the Harem’s position and architecture, its inhabitants from the gardeners to the eunuchs, its rules and discipline and its various activities; the second book is devoted to the women of the Harem, and to its kitchens and stables. The son of the Arabic interpreter at the French court (an office he was to inherit in 1695), De la Croix was sent to Constantinople in 1670 at the age of 17 in order to study the languages of the Levant. He was the author of a volume of memoirs relating to Turkey, conserved in manuscript at the BnF (Français 6094), which includes a dedicatory epistle to Louis XIV dated 26 March 1682, and published a number of volumes of Orientalist tales in later life, as well as editing the posthumously-published travels of Jean Thévenot (see Koç I, p.123). The copyist’s hand of the present manuscript changes after p.336, and the pagination jumps to p.346, although the text is apparently continuous.
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