Richard Chandler, classical scholar and traveller, was introduced to the Society of Dilettanti by Robert Wood, editor of The Ruins of Palmyra, and was commissioned by the Society to undertake a tour of exploration in Asia Minor and Greece in the first independent mission funded by the society. He was given command of the expedition and was accompanied by Nicholas Revett and the watercolour painter William Edmund Pars. They were instructed to make Smyrna their headquarters.The party spent about a year in Asia Minor; among the places visited were Tenedos, Troas, Chios, Smyrna, Erythrae, Teos, Priene, Iasus (in Caria), Mylassa (Caria), Stratonicea, Laodiceia (ad Lyceum), Hierapolis, Sardes, and Ephesus.

The valuable materials collected by Chandler and his companions were published in three works. The first to be published, at the expense of the Society of Dilettanti, was the first part of Ionian Antiquities, or, Ruins of Magnificent and Famous Buildings in Ionia (1769). Chandler wrote the text, while Revett provided the architectural drawings and Pars the topographical views. Chandler then produced an account of the inscriptions, together with a translation into Latin that was published at the Clarendon Press in Oxford as Inscriptiones antiquae, pleraeque nondum editae, in Asia Minore et Graecia (1774). His journals from the expedition appeared in two parts: Travels in Asia Minor (1775) and Travels in Greece (1776) (ODNB).

Second edition of first work, first edition of second, 2 volumes, 4to, xiv, xiii, [iii], 283, [i] (ads); [iv], xiv, [2], 304 pp., 4 folding engraved maps by Kitchin (1 + 3), uniform contemporary sprinkled calf, spines gilt, red and green morocco labels, bindings slightly rubbed, upper joints cracked but firm, a very good set.