Voyages and Travels in the Levant in the years 1749, 50, 51, 52 (First English Edition)

The first systematic natural history of the Holy Land, and the poignant final testament of one of Linnaeus's own "Apostles": a young naturalist who died indebted and unpublished on his journey home, his collections rescued by his mentor's own intervention.

Fredrik Hasselquist (1722–1752) was one of the celebrated "Apostles of Linnaeus"; a small band of students dispatched by Carl Linnaeus on scientific expeditions across the globe to gather the specimens and observations for scientific studies. Prompted, by his own account, by a lecture in which Linnaeus lamented how little the natural history of the Holy Land was known, Hasselquist set out at the age of twenty-seven on a journey that carried him through Asia Minor, Egypt, Cyprus, Palestine, Syria, Rhodes, and Chios across nearly four years of sustained fieldwork.

He never lived to see the results published: falling seriously ill on the return journey, he died near Smyrna in February 1752, leaving substantial debts against which his own collections and papers were promptly seized. It was Linnaeus himself who intervened, arranging for Queen Lovisa Ulrika of Sweden to purchase the collections and secure their return, receiving in turn a set of duplicate specimens that would form the basis of his own subsequent Flora Palaestina (1756).

Linnaeus then took on the further task of editing his late student's journals for publication, issuing them in Swedish in 1757 together with his own biographical account of the young naturalist's life and a selection of Hasselquist's letters written to him during the expedition, both of which are included in this edition. Reading the journals for the first time, Linnaeus wrote of his admiration in characteristically fervent terms, remarking that he had never encountered observations so fresh, genuine, and precise. This English translation, first published in 1766, has been described in the Blackmer's bibliography of travel and natural history literature as "the first systematic natural history of the Holy Land". It was a landmark contribution to the European scientific understanding of the region's flora, fauna, and antiquities, and a lasting monument to a scholarly career cut tragically short.

This copy carries the armorial bookplate of "Hare of Docking, Esq." — Docking being a village in Norfolk, and Hare a documented English gentry surname with long-established Norfolk associations — situating this volume within a specific and traceable line of English provenance extending back close to its original publication.

Voyages and Travels in the Levant; in the Years 1749, 50, 51, 52. Containing Observations in Natural History, Physick, Agriculture, and Commerce; Particularly on the Holy Land, and the Natural History of the Scriptures. First edition in English, translated from the original Swedish. Octavo. viii, 456, [i: blank]pp. Full calf. Titling to spine in gilt on Morocco panel. Five raised bands to spine with gilt-margined compartments. Folding engraved map frontispiece.  Armorial bookplate reading "Hare of Docking, Esq." to front pastedown. Leather a bit scuffed and worn. Long, thin patch of loss to leather at upper corner (6cm). Hinges a bit cracked, though binding remains tight. Contents a bit marked throughout, though generally in very good order. Complete.

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Catalogue Number: HH000771