[SPRATT, CAPTAIN THOMAS ABEL BREMAGE]. Travels and Researches in Crete. London: John van Voorst, MDCCCLXV [1865].
FIRST EDITION. Author's presentation copy, in two volumes, cloth-bound, hardcover, octavo (23cm x 14.5cm), pp. xii, [2], 387; ix, [3], 435. English text. Bound in publisher's original cloth, coated endpapers, hand-coloured folding engraved maps, 14 tinted lithographed plates, 3 further plates (of inscriptions and coins), 2 folding hand-coloured engraved maps, numerous lithographed or wood-engraved illustrations on india paper and mounted in the text, illustrations, tables, printed footnotes, advert leaf at beginning of vol.1 and end of vol.2, appendices. Printed by Taylor and Francis. Nicely inked author's presentation inscription to the front endpaper of each volume. Condition: GOOD. Collated complete. Bindings tight, secure and square. Spine ends and points slightly rubbed. Upper cover of vol.2 with some staining. Interiors largely very well preserved, some foxing mostly confined to the endpapers, a few pencil annotations. Scarce thus.
Notes: Exceedingly rare first edition and author's presentation copy of this important survey of Crete. Spratt's observations were made whilst directing a geological survey of the eastern Mediterranean. He explored the islands widely, visiting Gnossus, Lyttus, Lycastus, the Mirabella discrict, Olus, Gortyna, Axo and Eleutherna amongst other places. The appendices are devoted to marine data, geology, ornithology, land shells, Greek inscriptions and a vocabulary of Cretan and Modern Greek by Viscount Strangford. [Blackmer 1590].
