(RICAUT Paul) Rykota, The Turkish Monarchy.

Monarchya Turecka.

From the French Language into Polish Translated, by a Polish Nobleman. And now for the scarcity of the first exemplars repeated in print by the supervision of Jakub Szmyt Toruńczanin". Leipzig 1727. in the Breytkopf Printing House. (16.5 x 10.5 cm), f. [9], p. 311, [5], 1 frontispiece in copperplate, copperplate titlepage, binding psk. secondary.
(Estr. T. 26). A very rare Polish edition of Rycaut's famous work, the anonymous "Polish nobleman", (W.G.M.), dedicated his translation to Jakub Henryk Flemming (1667-1728), who served as Frederick Augustus of Saxony's ambassador to Warsaw. In his Note to the Reader, the translator indicates that Ricaut received some of his information about the Turkish monarchy from a Polish musician who became an interpreter in the Ottoman Empire, probably from Karol Skrzypczak. The translator also points out the need for Polish readers to part with certain myths about the Turkish regime, "because slavery under the Turks is not as hard as in our false freedom." It includes, among others: The Power of the Turkish Emperor; On Science; On the Eunuchs; On the Grand Vizier; On the Tartars; On Religion; On Offices; On Sects and Heresies; On the Dervishes; On Armies; On the Janissaries; and t.p. Rycaut (1628-1700) was private secretary to Heneage Finch, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and was British consul and factotum in Smyrna (now Izmir) from 1667-1678. No engravings; traces of non-moisture, name stamps; binding brown half leather, red signboard on spine.