PBA Galleries

xix, [1], 1152, [2] pp, With 17 hand-colored aquatint plates, 7 of them double-page, 8 with highlights in gold; 2 uncolored engraved plates; 2 folding copper-engraved maps; 2 engraved facsimiles of letters; 2 plates of Greek music. (4to) 28x21.5 cm (11¼x8¾"), original boards, expertly rebacked with paper in period style, recent paper spine label. First Edition. 

First edition of this renowned account of the tour Hobhouse made with Lord Byron in 1809 and 1810, notable as a significant source for both that period of the poet's life and for the intellectual movement prior to the outbreak of the Greek insurrection. They traveled across Portugal and Spain to Gibraltar. "From Malta he and Byron were encouraged by English naval and diplomatic intelligence to travel into Albania, where they stayed with Ali Pasha ... They then went into Greece, where they were surprised to discover considerable anti-Turkish feeling among the inhabitants. They based themselves in Athens, visiting Marathon on 24 January [1810], and then went via Smyrna to Constantinople, where they attended an audience with Sultan Mahmoud II on 10 July" (ODNB). Several of the plates depicting Athenian monuments in this work were commissioned by Byron from the artist Jacob Lynch, who was later involved in the excavations at Aegina with the architect Charles Cockerell. A notable copy with plates highlighted in gold. Abbey Travel 202; Atabey 584; Blackmer 821. Bookplate of Bishop Philpotts Library.