Dumont - Voyage du Levant - 1694

THE LEVANT BETWEEN DIPLOMACY, WAR, AND INTRIGUE: THE SECRET STORY IN THE RARE FIRST EDITION
Nouveau voyage du Levant by Jean Dumont, published in The Hague in 1694, is one of the most vivid and less conventional testimonies of the late-seventeenth-century Levant. It is not only a travel book but a work suspended between military memoir, ethnographic observation, and diplomatic chronicle. Dumont describes Constantinople, Malta, the Greek archipelago, Egypt, and Smyrna with the eye of a man involved in European and Ottoman political balances. From it emerges a penetrating portrait of the Ottoman Empire: customs, legal system, the role of women, slavery, imperial ceremonial, and the sultan’s triumphal entrance in 1690. A text that interweaves personal narrative and Mediterranean geopolitics.
MARKET VALUE
The first edition of 1694 is considered rare on the international antiquarian market. Complete copies of the 8 folded engraved plates can fetch between 800 and 1,500 euros, with higher figures in the case of excellent condition.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Full leather binding with gilt titles on a spine label. Frontispiece printed in red and black. Presence of 2 folded engraved plates (of 8 in total). Endpapers and flyleaves missing. External margin of the cross restored; pages browned with some stains; tear in the center of H2. In old books, with a multigenerational history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. 22nn; 476.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Nouveau voyage du Levant.
Haye, Chez Etienne Foulque, 1694.
Jean Dumont.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The work belongs to the great era of Levantine travel in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it stands out for its direct tone and attention to Franco-Ottoman diplomatic dynamics. Dumont, connected to the military service and European political circles, observes the Ottoman Empire not only as an exotic space but as a power with which Europe must negotiate. The text provides information on Islam, justice, administrative structure, urban life, and court rituals, offering an Western gaze that is both curious and strategic. The engraved plates – when complete – contribute to the iconographic construction of the Levant for the European public, fueling orientalism’s imagination before the full onset of the 18th century.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Jean Dumont (c. 1667–1727), French historian and politician, was the author of historical-diplomatic works and a traveler attentive to European balances. His output reflects an interest in international relations and in France’s position in the Mediterranean and Eastern scene.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The first edition was printed in The Hague in 1694 by Etienne Foulque, in a Dutch publishing environment particularly active in disseminating political and travel works. The book enjoyed a modest circulation, but complete copies with the plates are today less common, often mutilated or restored, due to use and the fragility of the folded engravings.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU/OPAC SBN: copies to be verified for the 1694 edition.
USTC (Universal Short Title Catalogue): edition The Hague, 1694, to be verified.
Brunet, Manuel du libraire, entry “Dumont (Jean)”, for editions of Nouveau voyage du Levant.
Atabey, The Ottoman World, for European travel literature on the Ottoman Empire (references to be verified for this specific edition).
Catalogues of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library: to be checked for collation and presence of the plates.