Voyage dans Le Levant en 1817 et 1818. by FORBIN, Auguste de, Comte (1779-1841) & Abbe de CHOISY - 1819

Paris:: Imprimerie Royale, 1819., 1819. 2 volumes. Text (sm. 8vo.) and Atlas folio. TEXT VOLUME: 8vo. [xii], 460 pp. Half-title ["se trouve chez Delaunay, libraire Palais-Royal, no. 243"], title vignette of the Armes Royale, dedication to the king, list of plates, with the rare folding engraved plate "Plan du Saint Sepulcre à Jerusalem"; plate is torn and mended (some Kozo, etc.). Contemporary quarter calf, paste-paper overs boards, red morocco gilt-stamped spine label, spine with gilt bands. ATLAS VOLUME: Large oblong folio. [54 cm]: [2] pages, 78 leaves of plates (70 lithographs after Carle Vernet, Fragonard, Isabey, Pierre Prevost, and Forbin, 8 aquatints by Debucourt after Forbin, 2 engravings by Englemann and Debucourt after Forbin), plans (etchings). Original printed cover-title mounted as a title, "Voyage dans Le Levant en 1817 et 1818 » on rouge colored paper. Handsomely bound in modern half dark calf, gilt-stamped spine, original spine preserved, early green cloth over boards, decorative endpapers. Bookplate of the Prince of Lichtenstein library [Ex-libris Liechtenstensteininis] of Vienna. Handsome set. FIRST EDITION OF BOTH PARTS, which were issued separately and thereby seldom found together. Brunet notes the Atlas was printed in 325 copies -- this is repeated by Khatib, who explains the early publishing history thusly: "Two editions, one marked "Seconde", were issued in 1819 with the text in 8vo and the folio plates to be purchased separately." Dedicated to Louis XVIII (1755-1824). The year-long voyage went to Greece, Syria, and Egypt. Forbin had obtained permission to acquire specimens from Egypt for French museums. Forbin was accompanied by the artist Pierre Prevost (1764-1823) and a very young engineer de Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds (1799-1883). The voyage was sponsored by Louis XVIII, the last king of France, who had himself lost many of royal powers subsequent to Napoleon's escape from Elba in 1815 and the 100 day campaign to retake the throne. Napoleon quickly gained support from military veterans still loyal to him. His campaign famously ended at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. This work is famous for the large number of large and remarkable plates. They were executed with the highest production methods and involved a number of qualified artists. Most "of the plates are scenes of Egypt and Palestine, after drawings by Forbin, Isabey, Prevost, Fragonard and Carle Vernet. The aquatint plates are all after drawings by Forbin himself." The travelers came first to Melos, Athens, Constantinople, Smyrna, Ephesus, Acre, Jafa, Jerusalem (noting the Temple of Solomon), The Dead Sea, Jordan, Cairo, Luxor, and Thebes. "In 1816 Forbin became Director of Museums in Paris and in August 1817 he made a semi-official year-long voyage to the Levant to purchase antiquities for the Louvre. He travelled to Athens, Constantinople, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine. From Jaffa he went overland to Alexandria and visited Egypt. This book was the result; it was one of the first important French books to use lithography on a grand scale, and the standard of production is equal to that of Napoleon's Description de l'Egypte or Dominique Vivant Denon's Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte, 2 vols." -- Khatib, p. 152-3. More details on request. Postage extra.