FORBIN Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste Voyage dans le Levant, en 1817 et 1818.

Quérard, III, 160 ; see Blackmer, 614 & Koç Collection, 209 (for the deluxe edition printed in 325 copies only).

First separate edition of the text.

“Apparently there is an issue with the words ‘seconde édition’ on the title. The small folio plates were to be purchased separately” (Atabey).

It was Chateaubriand who probably determined Louis de Forbin’s vocation to take to the sea in 1817, to travel to Asia Minor (Constantinople, Ephesus), then to Palestine and Egypt where he went up the Nile. Forbin had replaced Vivant Denon as director of the French Museums in 1816 and it was in a semi-official capacity that he undertook this trip, with the aim of acquiring antiquities for the Louvre. He also went to Milos, where his son-in-law Marcellus had negotiated the purchase of the recently discovered Venus for France. The large folding plan shows the ‘Saint Sépulcre à Jérusalem’ and is often mising.

Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title – the name of the dedicatee has been crossed out “Offert par l’auteur à Monsieur le [duc de ?]”.

Some occasional stains also to the plan, else a fine copy.