1741 Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy 8 vols set 17C French history Giovanni Marana

The eight volumes of Letters writ by a Turkish spy, who liv'd five and forty years undiscover'd at Paris : Giving an Impartial Account to the Divan at Constantinople, of the most Remarkable Transactions of Europe : And, Discovering several Intrigues and Secrets of the Christian Courts (especially of that of France) continued from the Year 1637, to the Year 1682.

Written, originally in Arabick, Translated into Italian, from thence into English. And now Published with a Large Historical Preface and Index, to Illustrate the Whole. By the Translator of the First Volume

Printed for G. Strahan, S. Ballard, J. Brotherton, W. Meadows, T. Cox, W. Hinchliffe, J. Stag, J. Clarke, in Duck-Lane, S. Birt, D. Browne, T. Astley, S. Austen, J. Shuckburgh, L. Gilliver, J. Hodges, E. Wicksteed, J. Oswald, J. Comyns, C. Bathurst, T. Fisher, J. Carter, and A. Wilde, London. M.D.CC.XLI [1741].

Eleventh Edition [complete in eight volumes] 

Bound uniformly in full leather, with volume numbers to spines, each volume measuring approx. 17 x 11 cm.

The author, Giovanni Marana, was an Italian living in France in the 17th century. He wrote in the character of a Turk visiting Paris, and these fictional letters back to his friends describe what he saw and did. Marana was probably the fist writer to use the device of a series of letters written by a visitor to a foreign country in order to comment satirically on contemporary politics, culture, religiion, manners and philosophy. He is an acute observer of the courts of Louis XIII and XIV, and nothing spared his satirical pen -- the hypocrisies of the Jesuits, the disastrous politics and wars of the 17th century, the crude manners and superstitions of the Europeans, and the seamy side of France. 

Condition: good+, somewhat rubbed & bumped externally, generally clean internally - 18thC ownership inscription (one John Mathews) to endpapers.