Author: MONTAGU, MARY WORTLEY.
Title: Letters of the right honourable Lady M-y W-y M-e; written during her travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, to persons of distinction ... which contain, among other curious relations, accounts of the policy and manners of the Turks. New edition.
Description: London, T. Becket and P.A. de Hondt, 1767.3 volumes. Sm.8vo. Contemporary calf with gilt fillets round sides (some hinges weak), spines ribbed with red morocco title-labels (extremities dam.). XII,(4),180; (4),195; (4),230 pp.First published in 1763; with written owner's name Moseley 1767. - Lady Mary Worthly Montague (1689-1762) was the first lady to travel abroad for mere curiosity's sake. In 1716 she accompanied her husband, Edward Montague, on his diplomatic mission to Constantinople, making the journey overland. The letters she wrote back home are justly ranked among the most celebrated of their kind in a century richly endowed with excellent letterwriters. She became a great admirer of Turkish culture and her work includes in sights that were exceptional for their time. A year after her death, her Turkish letters were published for the first time and they have not been out of print since. 'She was one of the most generous and accurate chroniclers of life in Constantinople since Busbecq'' (O'Neill, The Ömer Koç Collection, 138). 'She established the genre of European women's travel writting. Opinionated, energetic and flamboyant, they present a seductive, sophisticated and challenging vision of the European encounter with the Orient and they set a standard to which many subsequent writers aspired but few ever achieved' (Tuson, Western women travelling East, p.31).Blackmer Collection 1150; Atabey Collection 829; Contominas Collection 478; Gay 94; Paulitschke 682; Robinson, Wayward women, p.32-34.

Keywords: Europe Turkey