Thomas Herbert - Travels in Persia

First published in 1928

Reprinted in 2005 by
RoutledgeCurzon
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Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

Transferred to Digital Printing 2005

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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Travels in Persia

ISBN 0-415-34470-0

The Broadway Travellers

PLATE I

HERBERT IN LATER LIFE

First published in the Broadway Travellers, 1928

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., GUILDFORD AND ESHER

W HEN the youthful Herbert embarked for Persia in the suite of the English ambassador, nothing was further from his intentions than to publish on his return a book about his experiences. True, he kept a journal throughout his travels (except during the illness that almost proved fatal); but such was the common practice at the time. However, after getting back to England he followed another common practice by compiling an account of his journey for presentation to those noblemen through whose patronage he had obtained the opportunity of making it; and we may well believe that it was this narrative, handed round his circle of friends, that led to the pressure which was brought to bear upon him to issue his observations in book form. The result was the appearance in 1634four years after his return to Londonof a folio volume of about 250 pages. It was provided with two title-pages. The first is elaborately engraved with scenes and figures, with the following title in the centre: A Discription of the Persian Monarchy now beinge, the Orientall Indyes, Iles, and other parts of the Greater Asia and Africk. By Th. Herbert, Esq. The second is in ordinary type print with a long alternative title (which became in effect the only one used in the subsequent editions) beginning: A Relation of some Years Travaile. The engraver of the first title-page was W. Marshall, who may have been also responsible for the thirty-five copper-plate engravings which are scattered throughout the volume. These were based upon Herberts own drawings, as appears from several references to them in his text; but the engraver seems to have considered himself entitled to take liberties with his originals, for in one casethat of a shark fish (see plate xiii)we find the author protesting with reason that the creature has been mistaken in the posture by the engraver. Many of the illustrations are small sketches of island and coast lines, or of birds and fishes; and in the present edition it has been thought sufficient to reproduce merely the more important.

It is perhaps right to mention the conjecture of Davies (at p. 208 of the memoir alluded to in the Introduction) that the illustrations were the work of the celebrated Wenceslaus Hollar. The reason adduced is that an engraving by that artist of the ruins of Persepolis was added in the third edition; but this seems a very slight foundation for the ascription to Hollar of those made for the 1634 edition. Moreover, that particular illustration bears Hollars name, and the fact that the rest are unsigned suggests that they were not by him.

The work appears to have had an instant success. Considerable interest was being taken in Persia at that time, and a full account of the country was welcomed. Thus encouraged, Herbert in 1638 brought out a second edition, described as revised and enlarged by the author. Enlarged it certainly was. In the earlier edition Herbert had included much, drawn from other writers, about countries he never saw; and he now industriously added similar secondhand material until he increased the size of his original work by four-fifths. At the same time he corrected and added to the strictly narrative portions, and in this respect his revision was a distinct improvement. That he intended the new edition to be final is shown by the statement in his preface that my hand shall not be guilty of more intrusion; no more pressure to the press; the crowd is too strong already; and to that resolution he adhered for twenty-seven years, strengthened therein, perhaps, by the consideration that the troublous times of the Civil War and the Commonwealth were unpropitious for the issue of travel literature. When peace returned with the Restoration, Herbert seems to have bethought himself of the work which had brought him into notice; and in 1665 he published a third, in 1677 a fourth, edition of his Persian travels. In both issues he further amplified his original version, besides giving additional illustrations in each case. On the title-page of the 1665 edition the author boasts that the work is much enlarged, with many additions, nigh a third part more than in any of the former impressions; while in the 1677 issue he in like manner declares that he has again made many additions throughout the whole work. In point of fact, the original edition, with its comparatively modest total of about 100,000 words, had in the end swollen into a volume of over 340,000; and nearly all the fresh matter was secondhand material drawn from a variety of authors, ancient and modern.