Spencer, Edmund: Travels in Circassia, Krim-Tartary, &c. Including a steam voyage down the Danube, from Vienna to Constantinople, and round the Black Sea. Third edition. 2 Vol. London: Henry Colburn 1839. 21,8 x 13,6 cm. With a folded lithographic map, 2 colour frontispieces in lithography and steel engraving, 2 lithographic plates and numerous woodcuts in the text. XXII pp., 1 fol., 392; XI pp., 1 unnumbered p., 415 pp. Later half-maroquin binding with gold-stamped title on the spine and spine decoration

(Scuffed and bumped. 2 leaves of the first volume with a brown mark on the spine. The map has tears along the folds, a small patch and minimal water-stains along the edges. Slightly browned, with minor foxing in places. 2 bookplates on the front endpapers. Excludes the 2 leaves of publisher’s advertisements.)

Attabey Col. 1584. Blackmer Col. 1009. - A travelogue covering the Black Sea region and the Caucasus in the years immediately preceding the height of Russian expansion. Spencer describes his journey from Vienna via the Danube to Constantinople, and on to the Crimea and Circassia. His descriptions of the Circassians and their conflicts with Russia, in particular, made the work an important contemporary source on the Caucasus. Historians, however, raised doubts about Spencer’s credibility and carried out a systematic review of his biography and his accounts of Circassia. On the basis of new sources, it was demonstrated that, whilst Spencer was indeed a historical figure, his alleged journeys into the interior of Circassia cannot be substantiated. The study concludes that his travel accounts are of limited reliability as a historical source and must be regarded as largely fictitious.