LOTTIN DE LAVAL Victor Voyage dans la péninsule arabique du Sinaï et de l’Égypte moderne.

Blackmer, 1033 (missing the atlas); Gay, 81; Röhricht, 473. Not in Atabey.

First edition, rare with the atlas.

Lottin de Laval (1810-1903) was an emblematic personality of the XIXth century. Born into a modest Norman family, in order to relieve his family and try to support himself. Self-educated, he devoted what little spare time he had to reading, and in 1830 published a play, Benjamin Constant aux Champs Élysées, first performed at the Ambigu Comique theatre on 8 January 1831.

Later, under the protection of the minister Guizot, he worked as a secretary for the Earl of Avesnes, and was then employed to copy legal documents at Paris City Hall. During this period, he met many artistic personalities, including Victor Hugo, Eugène Delacroix, Alexandre Dumas, Rossini, Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin, George Sand, Franz Liszt and Louis Daguerre.

In 1834, with the money he had managed to put aside, he set off for Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia and Illyria, taking an interest in new archaeological discoveries.

Attracted by Eastern civilisations, on his return to France he obtained permission to take part in a French scientific mission to Nineveh in the Middle East from 1843 to 1846. Fascinated by ancient inscriptions, his mission enabled him to raise bas-reliefs using a method that bears his name, Lottinoplasty. Lottinoplasty is a moulding method used to recover archaeological data in situ for later study. This patent was bought by the State.

Using his moulding technique, he brought back two hundred kilos of pieces to Paris, which were bought by the State and stored in the Louvre Museum.

His second mission, undertaken between 1850 and 1851, took him to Egypt and Syria.

The Voyage dans la Péninsule arabique du Sinaï et de l’Égypte contains the account of this expedition.

“Lottin de Laval then went up the Nile to Cairo where he prepared his expedition which was to lead him from Egypt to Sinai, in the footsteps of the Hebrews. The documents kept in the Eure archives in Évreux allow us to follow him step by step on his journey. He sent numerous reports to the Ministry of Public Instruction and Worship, to Mr de Saulcy, a member of the Institute, and letters to his young wife Marguerite, who remained in Normandy. On 15 February 1850, he headed for Suez. He then visited the region of Memphis, the limestone quarries of Tura, the pyramids of Dahshur, Saqqarah and Abousir. He continued to cast stelae or bas-reliefs in the hypogeums before returning to Cairo to record Arabic inscriptions and decorations of mosques and tombs… Lottin made some casts on the spot, which are the subject of four plates devoted to the Islamic art of Cairo (fig. 12-13). Some of the casts reproduced are kept in the Bernay Museum (Eure) but none of the casts made in situ seem to be part of a public collection. The casts are very accurate and one can understand the enthusiasm of a linguist like Löwenstern: the very clear impression can be studied at leisure by scholars. In most cases, the plaster has been coated with a whitewash that restores the ochre aspect of the stone” (translated after : Nicole Zapata-Aubé, in: Victorien Pierre Lottin de Laval et la Lottinoplasie, open edition).

Very good copy. The atlas is complete with the map and its 72 required plates.