"THE EARLIEST ATTEMPT AT AN ELABORATE DESCRIPTION OF EGYPT"

NORDEN, F.L. (FREDERIK LUDVIG).

Travels in Egypt and Nubia. Translated from the Original. Published by Command of his Majesty the King of Denmark. And Enlarged with observations from ancient and modern authors, that have written on the antiquities of Egypt, by Peter Templeman. 2 vols.

London, Lockyer Davis a. Charles Reymers, 1757.

Folio (455 x 300 mm). Bound in a nice contemporary full longgrained red morocco binding with six raised bands. Gilt lettering to spine and ruled fillets to boards. Edges of boards gilt and with inner gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Boards with scratches and hinges and spine ends with wear. Two ex-libris (N. S. Jacobsen and Crabbet Park Library "Respiciendo Prospiciendo") to verso of front board. A fine copy. (10), XXXIV, 124, (2), VIII, 155, (1) pp. 2 engraved frontispieces and 160 engraved plates and maps.


First English edition of "the earliest attempt at an elaborate description of Egypt" (Blackmer) and one "of the earliest modern studies of Egypt" (Howgego). The present work is one of the most important works dedicated to the exploration and documentation of Egypt in the 18th century.

Issued with the same plates as the original, published in French in Copenhagen 1750-55. The Danish Royal Society sold all the original plates just after its publication to the English publishers, who issued the work in English with annotations by Peter Templeman.

Commissioned by the King of Denmark, Norden travelled to Egypt with the aim of documenting its ancient monuments, people, landscapes and the Nile. The resulting work was monumental in scope and among the earliest systematic and accurate accounts of ancient Egypt produced at a time when modern Egyptology not yet had become a disciplin. An anecdote tells that Napoleon, before his expedition to Egypt, pointed to these two foliovolumes in order to encourage his staff of scientists and artists.

Norden's detailed observations together with his maps, plans and fine illustrations provide an invaluable record of Egyptian antiquities and landscapes. His plates are of particular importance for documenting the condition of numerous monuments before the extensive excavations, restorations, and transformations that accompanied the great 19th-century European expeditions.

Brunet IV, 101
Graesse IV, 687. 
Blackmer 1212

Order-nr.: 63575

DKK 65.000,00