A Voyage into the Levant

A two-volume account, published in French in 1717 and translated in 1718, of a scientific voyage to the Black Sea.

This illustrated two-volume work, published in French in 1717 and translated into English in 1718, recounts a journey undertaken in 1700 by botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708) around the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Volume 1 begins with a biography of Tournefort, and ends in Constantinople.Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708) was originally destined for the church, but his interest in botany led him to become professor of botany at the Jardin des plantes in Paris, and to travel all over Europe and beyond in search of interesting specimens. He was chiefly interested in the classification of plants, but is now best remembered for the accounts he wrote of voyages undertaken for the purpose of scientific discovery. This illustrated two-volume work, published posthumously in French in 1717 and translated into English the following year, recounts a journey begun in 1700, around the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, visiting Crete and other Greek islands, Istanbul, Armenia and Georgia. Tournefort notes not only plants, but geographical features, antiquities, the people he encounters, and their way of life, agriculture and industry. Volume 1 begins with a biography of Tournefort, and ends with an account of Constantinople.