Meretseger Books

L'art arabe d'après les monuments du Kaire depuis le VIIe siècle jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe. Texte et 3 volumes de planches (complete set)

PRISSE D'AVENNES Emile

Item #M6414

Extremely rare complete set in the first edition. Morel, Paris, (1869-)1877. Four volumes comprising 3 folio volumes of lithographs and 1 text volume. In-4, viii & 296 + viii + viii + viii pages. Illustrated with 200 lithographs plates, 130 in colour, 48 tinted. Text volume with 34 plates and 73 text illustrations, 5 plates smaller and mounted to size. Scattered foxing affecting about 20% of the plates, not affecting the text volume. Modern dark blue half morocco gilt, marbled sides, a splendid set. Emile Prisse d'Avennes, orientalist & Muslim convert, obsessive in his attention to detail, was, after Champollion, the greatest pre-twentieth century Egyptologist. A French nobleman by birth, though impoverished, Prisse d'Avennes seems to have spent his life in the pursuit of the exotic. After a period fighting for Greek independence he travelled to India, a journey that prefigured his extensive Middle Eastern travels, which during the next 40 years took him to Palestine, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and most importantly Egypt and Algeria where he lived. Like Coste, Prisse d'Avennes worked for the Viceroy Mohammed Ali, though he quarrelled with Mohammed Ali subsequently and left his service. In 1860, Prisse d'Avennes returned to France with the fruits of his travels: 300 folio drawings, 400 metres of bas-reliefs, 150 photographs of important architectural details, 150 sketches, and daguerrotypes and numerous plans, details and elevations copied on the scene; he also returned with 29 skulls from ancient mummies, to each of which he had succeeded in ascribing a date, name and function. Until his death in 1877 this wealth of material was to occupy him completely as he sought to organise it for publication. Teams of artists, trained specifically for the purpose, attested to the 'constant and jealous attention' he lavished on his work, the result of which is this majestic and important book. Many of the examples produced have since disappeared, so the importance of the book, which post-dates the Description de l'Egypte by 6 decades and can be seen in some ways as a commentary upon it, cannot be underestimated. Language: French. Relevant subjects: Egypt: Medieval & Modern Egypt.

Language: French.

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