BROWN, Edward. A Brief Account of some Travels in divers Parts of Europe, Viz. Hungaria, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Friuli. Through a great Part of Germany and the Low-Countries. Through Marca Trevisana, and Lombardy on both Sides of the Po. With some Observations on the Gold, Silver, Copper, Quick-silver Mines, and the Baths and Mineral Waters in those Parts. As also the Description of many Antiquities, Habits, Fortifications, and Remarkable Places. The Second Edition with many Additions. London, Printed for Benj. Tooke, 1687.
Folio. Contemporary calf (re-backed and re-cornered in the 20th century); pp. [iv], 222, [4, index], [2, publisher's catalogue], 16 engraved plates (four folding), 8 engravings in the text; plate at p. 147 with defective margins and laid down, one folding plate with repared tear, minor marginal worming to a few leaves; contemporary bookplate Joseph Berens and later one of Guy Evans inside front cover.
Very rare. Second issue (first, 1685) of the second, enlarged edition, the first in folio (first, small 4to, 1673). A Fellow of the recently established Royal Society and medical doctor Brown travelled up the Danube, pretty much as a precursor of Patrick Leigh Fermor. Before settling in England as a physician he decided to travel to Eastern Central Europe and the Balkans, a journey not many English undertook at the time. 'From August 1668 until Christmas 1669 he visited the Low Countries, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and northern Greece, where at Larissa he saw the court of the ‘Grand Seigneur’. Browne had become a fellow of the Royal Society on 2 January 1668, and while abroad he sent letters to its secretary, Henry Oldenburg, containing, among other things, information on the gold, silver, and copper mines in Hungary, Transylvania, and Austria. In 1669–70 three letters were published in Philosophical Transactions' (ODNB). - This particular edition has 'additional text and 12 new plates' (Blackmer 217, on the first edition).
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