Histoire Des Revolutions De L'empire De Constantinople Burigny, Jean Levesque De Turkey, The Caucasus And Middle East

First edition. 3 volumes in duodecimo format (3 ¾ x 6 ¾ inches). Complete with xxxvi + 391 pages, xvii+ 579 pages; and ix + 559 pages plus 13 page publishers' catalogue. Beautiful set in uniform period full marbled calf binding, spines elaborately gilt in 6 compartments with red and green morocco title panels. Burigny (1692-1785) was a French historian and correspondent with Voltaire. Here he provides a history of Constantinople, since the foundation of this city, until the year 1453. It covers the establishment of the city as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine period, the sacking of the city during the Crusades, through to the Ottoman conquest in 1453 by Mehmet the Conqueror after a 53 day siege. A rare set. Neither Atabey's comprehensive collections of the Ottoman Empire or Blackmer's collection on Greece and the Levant included a copy of the 1749 first edition, as here. The Atabey copy of the 1750 2nd edition made GBP 5,300 at Sotheby’s London in 2002.