VOGÜE, Comte de. - Lot 186

VOGÜE, Comte de. Central Syria. Civil and religious architecture from the 1st to the 7th century. Paris, J. Baudry, 1865-1877. 2 folio volumes, [4]-15-[6] pp, 3 maps, 58 plates and [8] pp, 94 plates numbered 59-151. In leaves, as issued in publisher's jacket (on plates, occasionally important, small paper loss in margin of plate 106, some old restorations on some plates). First edition of this important work describing the journeys to Syria and Palestine made in 1853 and 1854 by Charles Jean Melchior de Vogüé, comte puis marquis de Vogüé (1829-1916), French archaeologist and diplomat, and William Waddington. The expedition explored "the region east of the coastal mountains, from Aleppo to Damascus, Palmyra and Basra. This area, rich in ancient monuments, brought to light a considerable quantity of new material, vestiges of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim periods" (Blackmer). The illustrations include 3 maps (2 of which are double-page and in color), 152 black etching plates (including one bis, one in color and 4 double-page plates) and 45 figures in the text. Although the faux-title bears the words La Syrie centrale, par M. de Vogüé et W.-H. Waddington, suggesting a joint publication by the two travelers, only the preface appears to have been written by both hands. The text volume contains exclusively de Vogüé's personal studies of Semitic architecture and epigraphy; Waddington's work was published separately as memoirs, notably in the Voyage archéologique en Grèce et en Asie Mineure directed by P. Le Bas. Blackmer, 1744. Brunet, Supplement, II 924. Orientalism. [Syria].