DESHAYES de Courmenin, Louis.

£3,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

Second edition of this important and early voyage to the Levant made by the French diplomat Louis Deshayes, his first mission on behalf of the French Crown. Louis Deshayes de Courmenin must have possessed exceptional gifts of intelligence and know-how for the royal government to entrust him, at the age of 21, with such an important and particularly delicate mission. The mission entrusted to him in 1621, was to obtain from the Grand-Turk the maintenance of the Catholic Churches in the Holy Land, then in the possession of the French Cordeliers, against the attempted usurpations of the Greeks and Armenians, as well as the establishment of a French consulate in Jerusalem. He was also to present votive offerings in the name of the king at the Holy Sepulchre. He was completely successful in these tasks and published the account of his travels in this work, the first edition of which appeared in 1624. Louis Deshayes .. undertook various diplomatic missions to the East, Russia and Denmark, on behalf of Louis XIII. In 1621 he travelled to Jerusalem, in order to found a French consulate. The chronicle of the journey was written by a secretary in his entourage. The first chapter relates the journey from Paris to Constantinople, across Southeast Europe by the land route (Vienna Belgrade Sofia Adrianople Constantinople) otherwise known as "via militaris". At the same time, the text records the other possible routes to the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Deshayes stayed in Constantinople fo

• Binding: Hardcover

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