WOOD, Robert. - Lot 189

WOOD, Robert. The Ruins of Palmyra and Balbec. London, William Pickering, 1827. In-folio (54.5 x 36 cm). 4 ff. (title, false title, to the reader), 80 pp. and 103 plates (numbered Tab. I to CVII including Tab. 1 in three leaves, and Tab. I to XCVI with 2 unnumbered plates), wide margins. Later 19th-century eggplant half-chagrin with corners, spine ribbed, gilt title (binding slightly rubbed, foxing). Important work on architecture and archaeology devoted to the ancient ruins of Palmyra and Baalbek. 1827 edition by William Pickering, combining for the first time Robert Wood's two titles "The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmor, in the Desert"; and "The Ruins of Balbec, otherwise Heliopolis in Coelosyria" published in London in 1753 and 1757. The illustration consists of 103 black etchings by Fourdrinier, Muller and Major after drawings by Borra, depicting plans, elevations, sections and architectural details. Robert Wood (1717-1771), classical scholar and traveler, led several expeditions to the Levant in the 1740s, during which he carried out the first large-scale architectural surveys of Palmyra and Baalbek, based on precise observations and rigorous measurements. Provenance: Ex libris from the library of André Lurçat, architect on the first endpaper. Hage Chahine, 5254. [Syria - Lebanon].