[viii], 1500, [17], [2], 31 pp. 33 engraved medallion portraits of the sultans, engraved title page, and engraved head- and tailpieces and initials throughout. (Folio) 13x8½, period full calf, disbound. Fifth Edition.
First published in 1603, Knolles' work earned the praise of Samuel Johnson: "None of our writers can, in my opinion, justly contest the superiority of Knolles, who, in his History of the Turks, has displayed all the excellencies that narration can admit. His style,. is pure, nervous, elevated, and clear" (Rambler, No. 122). And Byron, shortly before his death, wrote, "Old Knolles was one of the first books that gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had much influence on my future wishes to visit the Levant, and gave perhaps the oriental colouring which is observed in my poetry" (DNB). The fine medallion portraits of the Turkish kings, emperors and sultans together with their (mostly) Christian adversaries, were adapted from Jean Jacques Boissard's Vitae et Icones Sultanorum (1596) by Lawrence Johnson. STC 15055. Blackmer 920.
Condition:
Spine lacking, covers well worn, contents entirely disbound; lacking preliminary blank leaf (A1); pages browned and brittle at edges. Worthy of restoration.