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Details
THOMAS MAJOR (?1714-1799)
Les Ruines de Paestum, ou de Posidonie, dans la Grande Grece. London: Printed by James Dixwell, 1768. 2° (532 x 361mm). Dedication with engraved coat-of-arms, list of subscribers, 25 engraved plates, engraved head- and tail-pieces. (Occasional very light spotting and dust soiling, heavier to title, last three plates very slightly browned.) Contemporary calf, spine richly gilt in compartments, green morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, blue speckled edges (extremities rubbed, corners and joints more heavily, lacking front free marbled endpaper, lower joint cracked at tail, very small stain to fore-edge of upper board).
FIRST FRENCH EDITION of 'an important eighteenth-century pioneer contribution to the knowledge of Greek architecture' (Fowler). Major's work 'was larger and much more complete than any of the previous publications' (Blackmer) and its publication in a French translation in the same year as the English edition indicates the high degree of interest in France in Greek architecture at the time. The temples at Paestum were only discovered in 1746, and the first publication on them, in French, did not appear until 1764. Blackmer 1065; Brunet III, 1329; Cicognara 2680; Fowler 157; Harris 539.
Les Ruines de Paestum, ou de Posidonie, dans la Grande Grece. London: Printed by James Dixwell, 1768. 2° (532 x 361mm). Dedication with engraved coat-of-arms, list of subscribers, 25 engraved plates, engraved head- and tail-pieces. (Occasional very light spotting and dust soiling, heavier to title, last three plates very slightly browned.) Contemporary calf, spine richly gilt in compartments, green morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, blue speckled edges (extremities rubbed, corners and joints more heavily, lacking front free marbled endpaper, lower joint cracked at tail, very small stain to fore-edge of upper board).
FIRST FRENCH EDITION of 'an important eighteenth-century pioneer contribution to the knowledge of Greek architecture' (Fowler). Major's work 'was larger and much more complete than any of the previous publications' (Blackmer) and its publication in a French translation in the same year as the English edition indicates the high degree of interest in France in Greek architecture at the time. The temples at Paestum were only discovered in 1746, and the first publication on them, in French, did not appear until 1764. Blackmer 1065; Brunet III, 1329; Cicognara 2680; Fowler 157; Harris 539.
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