Aleppo Observed: Ottoman Syria Through the Eyes of Two Scottish Doctors, Alexander and Patrick Russell

London and Oxford: The Arcadian Library with Oxford University Press, 2010. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good +/very good +. First Edition. Hardcover. 12 7/8" X 9 3/4". 254pp. A hint of shelfwear and dust soiling to dust jacket. Bound in red cloth over boards, with spine lettered in gilt and publisher's device in gilt to upper board. Gentle bumping to tail of spine and light shelfwear to binding, firm and sound. Pages are clean and bright. A very presentable 2010 first edition of this first full-length study of the Russell brothers with particular emphasis on their Natural History of Aleppo. Studies in the Arcadian Library, No. 6.

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ABOUT THIS BOOK:
The Natural History of Aleppo, published first as a single volume in 1756 and as a two-volume edition in 1794, by Scottish physicians to the British Levant Company in Aleppo, Alexander and Patrick Russell, was a landmark in European knowledge of the Arab world. It was the first detailed study by a European of an Arab city, with a description of the topography, the inhabitants and the plant, and animal life in the neighbourhood. Maurits van den Boogert assesses the Russells' botanical and zoological discoveries and analyses the Natural History in the context of medical practices of the time both in Europe and the Ottoman Empire. He reconstructs their stay in Aleppo, their life in Britain, Patrick Russell's experiences in India, and their broader connections, as respected members of the Royal Society, with the world of learning at large. (Publisher).