First edition of an account of the Jesuit Mission in Syria, with a description of the region & peopl 1660

Joseph Besson

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• Sobre arte
  La Syrie Sainte. Ou la mission de Jesus et des peres de la compagnie de Jesus en Syrie.
  Paris, Jean Henault, 1660. 2 parts in 1 volume. 8vo.
  With a folding engraved map of Syria (including Lebanon, eastern Cyprus, and Palestine as far south as Gaza and the Dead Sea), with an inset map of the Lebanese coast from Beirut to Lebanese Tripo. Contemporary mottled tanned sheepskin, with gold-tooled fillets on the spine and boards.
  
  First (and only early French) edition of an account of the Jesuit mission in Syria, along with a description of Syria in general, by the French Jesuit Joseph Besson (1610-1691). He covers much more territory than the modern "Syria", including the whole of Lebanon and much of Palestine, so that there is, for example, a chapter on the churches of Jerusalem. The second part also includes travels in other parts of the Middle East. Before Bresson travelled through Syria, Persia and Arabia, he was rector at Nimes and taught rhetoric and philosophy. The first part specifically recounts the establishment, development and progress of the Jesuit mission in Syria. The second part (with a drop-title and its own pagination) describes the holy and sacred sites Bresson visited. It gives a very detailed and interesting description of Syria and of the various customs and habits of the Druse, Maronite, Armenian (Catholic and Apostolic), Turkish, Jewish and other people there. With the author's five-page dedicatory letter to Queen of Poland (Maria Ludwika), whose husband King Jan Casimir II had joined the Jesuit order in 1641.
  The binding has been restored at the head and foot of the spine, but appears to retain the original headbands. The mottling has caused some surface damage, but the binding remains structurally sound. With a water stain on lower outside corner in the second half, not reaching the text, and a stain along a repaired tear in the map, but still a good copy.
  De Backer & Sommervogel 1412; Chadenat 756.
• Sobre artista
  Joseph Besson (1610, Carpentras - 1691, Aleppo) entrou na Companhia de Jesus em 1626 e foi reitor do Collège de Nîmes, onde ensinou retórica e filosofia. Ele chegou como um missionário jesuíta em Sidon em abril de 1659. Besson começou imediatamente a escrever sobre seus companheiros missionários e os habitantes da Síria. Isso resultou em 1660 em seu livro La Syrie Sainte; ou la mission de Jésus et des pères de la Compagnie de Jésus en Syrie (A Santa Síria; ou a missão de Jesus e os Padres da Companhia de Jesus na Síria), duas partes em um volume. Besson cobre em suas descrições muito mais território do que a Síria moderna: todo o Líbano e grande parte da Palestina. A primeira parte relata os preparativos e o progresso da missão jesuíta na Síria. A segunda parte descreve os lugares sagrados. Ele dá uma descrição muito vívida e detalhada da Síria e dos costumes dos Drusos, Maronitas, Armênios, Turcos, Judeus e outras pessoas de lá.