1814. BOOK: (TRAVELS). ALI BEY BADIA I LEBELICH,... Lot 150

[1814]. BOOK: (TRAVELS). ALI BEY [BADIA I LEBELICH, DOMENECH]: EXPLANATION DES PLANCHES COMPOSANT L'ATLAS DES VOYAGES D'ALI BEY. [Paris: Imp. Didot, 1814]. Landscape leaf. 14 p. + 1 h. + LXXXIII Numbered plates (8 folds) + 5 maps (4 folds). Keeps his beard. Intermittent gallery, mainly in its inner margin. Includes a total of 85 engraved and numbered plates plus 5 maps folded at the end, drawn by the author himself and engraved by Adam. Vol. IV or Atlas of the Travels of Ali Bey, contains a multitude of views, planimetries and sections of various buildings, typical objects, documents and maps. Francisco Jorge Badía y Leblich was born in Barcelona, was a Spanish military man, spy, Arabist and adventurer, also known as Alí Bey or Alí Bey el-Abbassi. From 1778 he lived in Cuevas de Almanzora, Almería, where he became interested in Muslim culture, studied Arabic in Valencia, in 1792 he moved to Córdoba and then in 1793 to Madrid. In 1803 he received, from the hands of Mr. Manuel Godoy, Prime Minister of Mr. Carlos IV, the task of travelling through Muslim territories, which he disguised as a Syrian prince descending from the Abasid dynasty. After visiting London to improve his knowledge of the Arabic language, he travelled through Morocco, Algeria, Libya and territories under the Ottoman Empire, such as Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Greece. Between 1808 and 1814 he was in the service of King Joseph I, Napoleon's brother, who had imposed himself on the Spanish as king. He was appointed Warden of Cordoba and carried out these functions between 1810 and 1811. After the expulsion of the French in 1813, he went into exile in Paris where he published his great work. In 1818 he travelled to Damascus where, according to some sources, he was poisoned by the British secret services and according to others he died of dysentery near Meserib. Enc. in half skin and cardboard, very grazed.