Greek description of Palestine, from the library of George III

Chrysanthos, Metropolitan of Durazzo, Brusa, and Smyrna. [Proskynetarion tes hagias poleos Hierousalem kai pases Palaistines].

Vienna, Johanna Schrämbl, 1807.

Folio (215 x 328 mm). (4), 104 pp. With engraved frontispiece and 51 leaves of plates (8 double-page-sized or folded). Near-contemporary red half morocco with gilt rules and marbled covers, spine richly gilt (loss of label). Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

 9,500.00

Rare description of the Holy City of Jerusalem and of the whole of Palestine; a reissue (with changed title) of the edition published by Josef Baumeister in Vienna in 1787. Previous editions had appeared in Venice in 1728, then in 1749 and 1781, while the 1787 edition boasted "a new text and different iconography" (Staikos). This latter edition is here reproduced largely unchanged save for bringing the name of the Patriarch of Jerusalem up to date (from Abraham to Anthimus), as well as that of the editor, Apostolas Boras, on the title-page.

"The engraving of the Patriarch on his throne is unchanged except for the name; it is signed (in Greek): 'engraved by Schindelmayer in Vienna' [...] A large-sized, impressive book" (Staikos). "A portrait of the Patriarch [Anthimus] forms the frontispiece; also, there is an illustration of the Palace of David, and a plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, though the view of its cross-section is quite haphazard [...] The author expands on Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, and the sacred sites of Galilee. The text is apparently more or less that of the Venice 1728 edition; apart from that, it is generously interspersed with highly appealing illustrations in the true taste of modern Greece" (cf. Tobler 135).

The Viennese publisher and printer Franz Anton Schrämbl, whose company was continued by his widow Johanna after his death in 1804, specialised in reprints (often of large sets), maps, and books in Greek. Their production was one of the strongest in Vienna (cf. Frank/Frimmel, Buchwesen in Wien, p. 175f.).

Provenance

From the library of King George III of the United Kingdom (1738-1820) with his royal cypher on the spine.

Condition

Extremeties bumped; spine-ends chipped. Still a beautiful volume.

References

Staikos no. 28 (note p. 94). OCLC 41651327. Cf. Röhricht 1362, 1515. Tobler 124f., 135. Legrand (XVIII) 1208.