Les ruines de Palmyre,
autre dite Tedmor au desert.
London, Miller, 1753
Not only an important architectural source book, '... as a dispassionate and accurate survey of the architecture of antiquity; it wrested the lead in such matters from the French, and initiated a series of archaeological works that came to characterize the activities of both connoisseurs and architects in England in the second half of the eighteenth century' (Millard).
In 1750 Wood, accompanied by John Bouverie, James Dawkins, and an Italian artist Giovanni Battista Borra, made a protracted journey through Asia Minor and Syria, eventually reaching the ruins of Palmyra and Balbec in 1751. Dawkins produced the official account of the tour, while Wood did the work on the topography and inscriptions.
First edition, French text issue, large folio (55 × 38cm), 57 engraved plates by P. Fourdrinier, J. Muller and T. Major after drawings by Borra, on 59 sheets (3-sheet panorama not joined), light toning as usual, occasional light offsetting, contemporary catspaw calf gilt, rebacked preserving spine, expert repairs to edges, red morocco lettering piece, a very handsome example.
Millard (British Books), 92; Blackmer 1834.
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