depuis le VIIe Siècle jusqu'à la Fin du XVIIIe.
Paris, Morel, 1877
Complete with the quarto text volume. One of the most important books on Islamic art and architecture, focusing on monuments in Egypt.
Emile Prisse d'Avennes, orientalist & Muslim convert, obsessive in his attention to detail, was, after Champollion, the greatest pre-twentieth century Egyptologist. A French nobleman by birth, though impoverished, Prisse d'Avennes spent his life in the pursuit of the exotic. After a period fighting for Greek independence he travelled to India, a journey that prefigured his extensive Middle Eastern travels, which during the next 40 years took him to Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and most importantly Egypt and Algeria where he lived. Like Coste, Prisse d'Avennes worked for the Viceroy Mohammed Ali, though he quarrelled with Mohammed Ali subsequently and left his service.
In 1860, Prisse d'Avennes returned to France with the fruits of his travels: 300 folio drawings, 400 metres of bas-reliefs, 150 photographs of important architectural details, 150 sketches, daguerrotypes and numerous plans, details and elevations copied on the scene; he also returned with 29 skulls from ancient mummies, to each of which he had succeeded in ascribing a date, name and function. Until his death in 1877 this wealth of material was to occupy him completely as he sought to organise it for publication. Teams of artists, trained specifically for the purpose, attested to the 'constant and jealous attention' he lavished on his work, the result of which is this majestic and important book.
Many of the examples produced have since disappeared, so the importance of the book, which post-dates the Description de l'Egypte by 6 decades and can be seen in some ways as a commentary upon it, cannot be underestimated.
First edition. 3 volumes, folio (66 x 52 cm), [viii]; [viii]; [viii] pp., with 200 lithographed plates, 130 in colour, 48 tinted (all mounted on tabs) some light scattered foxing throughout, text volume with 34 plates and 73 text illustrations; bound in contemporary brown morocco backed marbled boards, spine gilt lettered with raised bands; overall a very attractive example.
Cresswell I, 81.
Emile Prisse d'Avennes, orientalist & Muslim convert, obsessive in his attention to detail, was, after Champollion, the greatest pre-twentieth century Egyptologist. A French nobleman by birth, though impoverished, Prisse d'Avennes spent his life in the pursuit of the exotic. After a period fighting for Greek independence he travelled to India, a journey that prefigured his extensive Middle Eastern travels, which during the next 40 years took him to Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and most importantly Egypt and Algeria where he lived. Like Coste, Prisse d'Avennes worked for the Viceroy Mohammed Ali, though he quarrelled with Mohammed Ali subsequently and left his service.
In 1860, Prisse d'Avennes returned to France with the fruits of his travels: 300 folio drawings, 400 metres of bas-reliefs, 150 photographs of important architectural details, 150 sketches, daguerrotypes and numerous plans, details and elevations copied on the scene; he also returned with 29 skulls from ancient mummies, to each of which he had succeeded in ascribing a date, name and function. Until his death in 1877 this wealth of material was to occupy him completely as he sought to organise it for publication. Teams of artists, trained specifically for the purpose, attested to the 'constant and jealous attention' he lavished on his work, the result of which is this majestic and important book.
Many of the examples produced have since disappeared, so the importance of the book, which post-dates the Description de l'Egypte by 6 decades and can be seen in some ways as a commentary upon it, cannot be underestimated.
First edition. 3 volumes, folio (66 x 52 cm), [viii]; [viii]; [viii] pp., with 200 lithographed plates, 130 in colour, 48 tinted (all mounted on tabs) some light scattered foxing throughout, text volume with 34 plates and 73 text illustrations; bound in contemporary brown morocco backed marbled boards, spine gilt lettered with raised bands; overall a very attractive example.
Cresswell I, 81.
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