![FORBIN, Louis, Comte de (1777-1841). Voyage dans le Levant. [With:] Voyage dans le Levant, en 1817 et 1818. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1819.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16018_0283_001(forbin_louis_comte_de_voyage_dans_le_levant_with_voyage_dans_le_levant075754).jpg?w=1)
![FORBIN, Louis, Comte de (1777-1841). Voyage dans le Levant. [With:] Voyage dans le Levant, en 1817 et 1818. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1819.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16018_0283_002(forbin_louis_comte_de_voyage_dans_le_levant_with_voyage_dans_le_levant075802).jpg?w=1)
![FORBIN, Louis, Comte de (1777-1841). Voyage dans le Levant. [With:] Voyage dans le Levant, en 1817 et 1818. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1819.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2018/CKS/2018_CKS_16018_0283_000(forbin_louis_comte_de_voyage_dans_le_levant_with_voyage_dans_le_levant102621).jpg?w=1)
Details
FORBIN, Louis, Comte de (1777-1841). Voyage dans le Levant. [With:] Voyage dans le Levant, en 1817 et 1818. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1819.
First edition of ‘one of the most important French books to use lithography on a grand scale’ (Blackmer). Forbin was appointed Director-General of Museums at the Louvre in 1816, and the following year set off on a year-long buying expedition to the Levant. The large illustrations in this volume depict people and scenes across the Levant including Jerusalem, Syria, Athens, Constantinople and Egypt. This copy is accompanied by the first octavo edition of the text, published the same year. One of 325 copies. A fresh and uncommonly tall example. Blackmer 614: ‘the standard of production is equal to that of Napoleon’s Description de l’Egypte’; Atabey 447 & 448.
2 vols, comprising: atlas, folio (712 x 511mm) and text, octavo (200 x 124mm). Atlas: half-title, 66 leaves of text and 80 plates of which 70 lithographed, 8 aquatinted before letters and 2 engraved, by Englemann and Debucourt after Prevost, Deseynes, Fragonard, Isabey, Vernet and Forbin himself; text: half-title, engraved folding plan of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem (both volumes with occasional faint spotting). Atlas bound in contemporary half calf, spine gilt with green morocco lettering-piece (lightly rubbed); text in contemporary quarter calf and marbled boards.
First edition of ‘one of the most important French books to use lithography on a grand scale’ (Blackmer). Forbin was appointed Director-General of Museums at the Louvre in 1816, and the following year set off on a year-long buying expedition to the Levant. The large illustrations in this volume depict people and scenes across the Levant including Jerusalem, Syria, Athens, Constantinople and Egypt. This copy is accompanied by the first octavo edition of the text, published the same year. One of 325 copies. A fresh and uncommonly tall example. Blackmer 614: ‘the standard of production is equal to that of Napoleon’s Description de l’Egypte’; Atabey 447 & 448.
2 vols, comprising: atlas, folio (712 x 511mm) and text, octavo (200 x 124mm). Atlas: half-title, 66 leaves of text and 80 plates of which 70 lithographed, 8 aquatinted before letters and 2 engraved, by Englemann and Debucourt after Prevost, Deseynes, Fragonard, Isabey, Vernet and Forbin himself; text: half-title, engraved folding plan of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem (both volumes with occasional faint spotting). Atlas bound in contemporary half calf, spine gilt with green morocco lettering-piece (lightly rubbed); text in contemporary quarter calf and marbled boards.
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