 |
MARTINO PUBLISHING
Arents-Ayer Library
[Arents Catalogue] Brooks, Jerome. TOBACCO: IT’S HISTORY ILLUSTRATED
BY THE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS IN THE LIBRARY OF GEORGE ARENTS.
$495.
Cloth.
Five Volumes. Quarto. xvi. 543 + ix. 564 + vii. 545. + 486 + 327pp. ISBN 1-57898-099-2.
This
collection of more than 4,000 printed items in twenty languages is remarkable
for its superb condition as well as for inclusiveness. Although the collection
is devoted to tobacco and includes almost every important work dealing directly
with the subject, it contains many historical and literary works in which literary
accounts of tobacco have only an incidental part. The Arents collection was
published in an edition of only 300 copies. Most of these went into Institutional
holdings. As a result, the catalogue is rare and quite expensive on the Antiquarian
Market. Copies seldom sell for less than $2,000. This is the first time the
catalogue is available in reprint. Besterman 6141.
Armstrong, Alexander. A Personal Narrative Of The Discovery Of The North-West Passage With Numerous Incidents Of Travel And Adventure During Nearly Five Years' Continuous Service In The Arctic Regions While In Search Of The Expedition Under Sir John Franklin. $85.00
Oversized octavo. Book xxii, 616 p. illus. London, Hurst and Blackett, 1857
ARMSTRONG, Sir ALEXANDER, [1818-1899] studied medicine in Dublin and at the University of Edinburgh, joined the Royal Navy as assistant surgeon in 1842. Gifted in his profession, he was commended by his superiors for effecting improvement in naval hygiene, and on 19 Oct. 1849 was promoted surgeon. That December he was appointed surgeon and naturalist to the Investigator under the command of Robert John Le Mesurier McClure*. The ship was one of two vessels commissioned to sail to the western Arctic by way of Bering Strait in search of the ships of Sir John Franklin, missing since 1845. The commanding officer was Captain Richard Collinson in Enterprise.
Among the published journals of Arctic exploration, Armstrong's Personal narrative holds first place with Franklin's Narrative of a journey to the shores of the polar sea in interest and value. The prosaic, methodical Irish surgeon has given us a Canadian Odyssey almost as grotesque as the original and possessing the dignity and authority of history. Restrained though his language may be, he is unmatched in depicting travel through turbulent seas, in cold and hunger, on a barren, desolate shore.
In 1858 Armstrong's Observations on naval hygiene and scurvy, more particularly as the latter appeared during a polar voyage was published in London. He spent the following decades on seagoing appointments in the Baltic Sea and the West Indies, as superintendent of the naval hospital at Malta, and as director-general of the Royal Navy's medical department. He was awarded a KCB in 1871 and in 1880 retired to a quiet life. In 1894, five years before his death, he married the widow of Sir William King Hall. Co-published with Wayfarer's Bookshop and Voyager Press Rare Books.
Ashbee, H.S & R. Playfair, Lambert. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TUNISIA & A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE BARBARY STATES: TRIPOLI & CYRENAICA. $70.00
Cloth. Oversized Octavo. Two volumes bound in one. pp. [iii]144
& 56pp. London: Dulau & Co., 1889 & London: Royal Geographical Society,
1889.
The coast of Tunisia was settled in the tenth century BC by Phoenicians.
In the 6th century. BC, Carthage rose to power, but it was conquered by Rome
(2d cent. BC), and the region became one of the granaries of Rome. It was held
by Vandals in the 5th Century and by Byzantines in the 6th cent. In the 7th
century it was conquered by Arabs. The region became known as Ifriqiya and the
Berber population was converted to Islam. Successive Muslim dynasties ruled,
interrupted by Berber rebellions. The reigns of the Aghlabids (9th cent.) and
of the Zirids (from 972), Berber followers of the Fatimids, were especially
prosperous. When the Zirids angered the Fatimids in Cairo (1050), the latter
ravaged Tunisia.
The coasts were briefly held by the Normans of Sicily in the 12th cent. In 1159,
Tunisia was conquered by the Almohad caliphs of Morocco. The Almohads were succeeded
by the Berber Hafsids (c.1230-1574), under whom Tunisia prospered. In the last
years of the Hafsids, Spain seized many of the coastal cities, but they were
recovered for Islam by the Ottoman Turks. Under its Turkish governors, the beys,
Tunisia attained virtual independence. In the late 16th cent. the coast became
a pirate stronghold. The Hussein dynasty of beys, established in 1705, lasted
until 1957.
Tripoli is capital of Libya and of and a major port on the Mediterranean Sea.
Located on the edge of a large oasis, the city was founded (probably in the
7th century BC) as Oea by Phoenicians from Tyre. The main city of the historic
region of Tripolitania, it was later captured by the Romans (1st cent. BC),
the Vandals (5th cent. AD), and the Arabs (7th cent.). The city was a terminus
of important trans-Saharan caravan routes. Captured in 1510 by the Spanish,
Tripoli was granted (1528) to the Knights of St. John, who held it until 1551,
when it was taken by the Ottoman Turks. From 1711 to 1835, Tripoli was the seat
of the Karamanli dynasty, which ruled most of what later became Libya with little
control from Constantinople. The city was a major base of the Barbary pirates,
whom the United States fought (1801-5) in the Tripolitan War. In 1911, Tripoli
passed to Italy, and later it was made the capital of the Italian colony of
Libya. During World War II, the city was captured (1943) by the British.
Cyrenaica is an historic region in Eastern Libya, bordering on the Mediterranean
Sea. The Greeks colonized N Cyrenaica in the 7th cent. BC, founding numerous
settlements. In the mid-1st cent. BC, Cyrenaica became a Roman province. In
AD 115-16 there was a large-scale but unsuccessful revolt of Jewish settlers.
When Rome was divided (4th cent.) into the Eastern and Western empires, Cyrenaica
came under the Byzantines, who, however, exercised little control over the region.
In 642 Arab armies conquered Cyrenaica and many Arabs settled in the region
from the 9th to 11th cent. The Ottoman Turks captured the area in the mid-16th
cent. The Sanusi Muslim brotherhood was founded (1843) in Cyrenaica and gained
many adherents there.Two volumes bound in one. Besterman 6222 & 6210.