Monumental description of an archaeological expedition to the Levant
Mission de Phénicie.
Folio (ca. 275 x 365 and 370 x 555 mm). Altogether 13 volumes (7 text volumes and 7 issues of plates in 6 volumes). (4), 884, (4) pp. With 70 engraved and lithographed numbered plates, including 1 folded plate, 1 folded map, and 8 plans, 3 of which folded; a few in original hand colour. Contemporary wrappers. Plates stored in two half cloth portfolios.
€ 25,000.00
First edition.
A rare complete set of this monumental description of the 1860/61 archaeological expedition to Lebanon and Syria, commissioned by Napoleon III and led by the renowned scholar of Semitic languages, Joseph Ernest Renan. The text volumes give a vivid account of the expedition, its route and findings, and include several illustrations within the text, while the plates provide additional documentation of the visited archaeological sites. Engraved by Jules Penel (b. 1833), Georges Erhard Schièble (1821-80), and others, they include a map of the expedition area, Phoenician monuments at Amrit, Arwad, Byblos, Sidon and other places, as well as a folded plate showing the Kabr Hiram mosaic and 3 folded plans depicting Sidon and the Sidon necropolis. This important work documents the state of the excavations at that time and triggered further research on the Phoenicians. A facsimile edition appeared in 1998.
Text volumes uncut. Some wrappers faded, extremities bumped. Paper somewhat browned as common; plates fresh and clean.