Les ruines de Palmyre, autrement dite Tedmor, au désert.

Folio: [6]-50 pp.; 59 pl. (light spotting).

Contemp. marbled calf, gilt orn. spine with raised bands (partly rubbed). Nice copy.

First French ed., published the same year as the 1st English ed., of a major report on Palmyra. Illustrated with 59 plates (the pl. I, panorama of Palmyra being presented in this copy as 3 separate pl. and not as a fold. pl.) by P. Fourdrinier and Thomas Major and J.S. Müller after Borra fig. monuments, their architectural details and plans. Also with 3 full-page pl. of inscriptions. R. Wood (1716-1771), one of the first English archaelogists, travelled around the Levant in 1750-1751 to explore the Troad and locate the key sites mentioned by Homer. He was accompanied by two antiquarians, James Dawkins and John Bouverie, and by the Italian architect Giovanni Battista Borra. When they arrived in Syria, they paid particular attention to measurements and drawings of Palmyra and Baalbek.
Ref. Cicognara 2722. - Berlin Kat. 1884 (English ed.). - Fowler p. 345 (Engl. ed. & Fr. ed. of 1757).
Prov. Library of the cathedral of Tournai, 1771 (ms. ownership entry on title partly erased).