GIRAULT DE PRANGEY, Joseph-Philibert. - Lot 197

GIRAULT DE PRANGEY, Joseph-Philibert. Monument arabes et moresques de Cordoue, Séville et Grenade. Paris, Veith et Hauser, 1837. In-folio, 57 ff. including one double-page spread. Contemporary brown half-percaline (unbound, freckling, most spotting in the margins, a few ff. bound out of order, a split in the lateral margin of pl. 6, marked 3, of the "Mosque of Cordoba" section). Important and magnificent work by Girault de Prangey reproducing images of Arab and Moorish monuments in Spain, drawn and surveyed between 1832 and 1833. Illustrated according to his drawings and surveys. It consists of three parts, containing souvenirs of Granada and the Alhambra, the mosque in Cordoba, and the Alcazar and Giralda in Seville. The work includes a general title page, three title-frontispiece pages for each part, lithographed by Asselineau et Monthelier, Bernand and Frey, as well as 8 plates devoted to the Cordoba mosque, 6 plates to the Alcazar and Giralda in Seville and 30 plates to Granada and the Alhambra (including a fold-out plate illustrating sections, elevations and details of the Alhambra palace). A total of 44 plates (most of which bear the Girault de Prangey coat of arms in the lower margin). The work also includes 9 leaves of text containing explanations of the plates. Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-1892) was a photographer, draughtsman and archaeologist, considered a pioneer of photography. Around 1840, he traveled throughout the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East, producing some of the earliest known daguerreotypes of Islamic architecture and ancient sites, notably in Egypt, Syria and Turkey. Graesse, III-89. Brunet, II, 1614. ANDALUSIA. MAGHREB.