Renan Ernest

1864 · réf. ABC_45229 — Paris 1864. Folio 275 x 365 and 37 x 555 cm. Imprimerie Impériale/Nationale Contemporary wrappers. Plates stored in two half cloth portfolios. With 70 engraved and lithographed numbered plates including 1 folding 1 folding map and 8 plansincluding 3 folding a few in contemporary hand colouring and several illustrations in the text. 14 volumes bound as 13 7 of text and 7 of plates the latter bound as 6. 4 884 4 pp. Very rare complete set of the first edition of a monumental and extensively illustrated 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 in the text while the plates provide additional documentation of the archaeological sites visited. Engraved by Jules Penel 1833-post 1910 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 folding plate showing the Kabr Hiram mosaic and 3 folding 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 untrimmed with all deckles preserved. Some wrappers faded extremities bumped. Paper somewhat browned as common; plates fresh and clean.l Harris Lebanon p. 175. ABE CAT Art History hardcover