4 volumes including atlas. Text: [4], iii, [1], 388 pp.; [4], 222, [5] pp.; [4], vi, 326 pp. + 14 plates (incl. 2 double-page color maps & 2 double-page color sections). 36.3x27.2 cm (14¼x10¾"), original printed wrappers, contents untrimmed & largely unopened. Atlas: 85 plates & maps, including folding colored maps; 1 engraved plate of the expedition's vessel; 64 photogravure plates by Charles Nègre after Louis Vignes’ original photographs (illustrating the Luynes expedition) numbered 1-64 (includes one double-paged plate); 18 plates [numbered 1-18], including four maps and plans (one double-page), and 14 tinted lithographed plates by Ciceri after photographs by Vignes and Sauvaire (illustrating the Mauss expedition). 26.5x29 cm (14½x11½"), contents loose as issued in original cloth-backed printed boards portfolio with cloth spine, ribbon ties. PLUS:
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Liste des Itinéraires et Traités Géographiques concernant la Syria, la Palestine & L’Arabie qui se trouvent dans la Bibliothéque de M. Le Duch de Luynes. Hyères: Imprimerie H. Hoan, 1865.
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Vignes, Louis. Note sur quelques déterminations de coordonnées géographiques. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1864 [1866].
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Vignes, Louis. Extrait des notes d'un voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, dans le Wady Arabah, sur la rive gauche de Jourdain et dans le désert de Palmyre. Publié sous les auspices de M. le duc de Luynes. Paris: Henry Plon, 1865.
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Three separately published maps issued prior to the 1874 full report.
Rare complete edition of Luynes important account of exploration in Palestine, the Dead Sea, and Petra. Especially notable for the atlas volume, with 64 photogravure plates, considered an incunable of photomechanically-illustrated books and among the earliest published photographs of Jordan and the Dead Sea basin. In addition, there is the "Extrait des notes d'un voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte...", issued nearly ten years prior to the publication of the main account. The Duc de Luynes inherited enormous wealth and spent his life on scientific, archeological and artistic pursuits. Among those was this 1864 private expedition to the Dead Sea basin and interior of Jordan to examine the region's ancient ruins and perform geological and scientific observations. Luynes was accompanied on the expedition by Lieutenant Louis Vignes, who served as the expedition's photographer, as well as noted geologist Louis Lartet.
Honoré Théodore Paul Joseph d'Albert, duc de Luynes (1802-1867) was a humanist, antiquarian, collector and philanthropist with deep interdisciplinary interests. A member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, de Luynes studied and collected antiquities of the GrecoRoman world, and especially from Cyprus, Phoenicia, Palestine and Italy. He pursued scientific interests in photography, chemistry and geology. After serving as deputy director of the Louvre from 1825 to 1828, de Luynes traveled to Southern Italy with architect Joseph-Frédéric Debacq, where he co-founded the Istituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica (now the German Archaeological Institute) in Rome in 1829 with Eduard Gerhard. In 1835, de Luynes sponsored the French section of the Institute and the Nouvelles Annales de l'Institut archéologique, for which he received the Prussian order Pour le Mèrite für Wissenschaft und Künste in 1853. He supported and led an expedition to the Dead Sea region in 1864 and commissioned a second expedition to the area in 1866.”—From OCLC description of the Luynes archive at the Getty.
THE ITEMS IN ORDER OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATION ARE:
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Luynes, Honoré T.P. Joseph d’Albert, Duc de] Liste des Itinéraires et Traités Géographiques concernant la Syria, la Palestine & L’Arabie qui se trouvent dans la Bibliothéque de M. Le Duch de Luynes. Hyères: Imprimerie H. Hoan, 1865. 21 cm. 16pp + green printed wrappers, fine copy. Alphabetical listing of books in the Duc’s library, no doubt works that the Duc read and consulted for his own study and travels through the Middle East. With 105 titles listed on 8pp, and pp.9-16 noted as “Supplement” but otherwise blank (aside from pagination), obviously for the addition of other titles by hand. Not located in OCLC.
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Vignes, Louis. Note sur quelques déterminations de coordonnées géographiques. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1864 [1866]. 24 cm. 4pp + original printed wrappers, fine copy. After having joined the Duc on his exploration “of the Dead Sea and the Arabian Valley,” Vignes departed company at Jaffa and made his way to Jerusalem. In this extract of a letter written to the Duc, Vignes provides some information on the geographical location of Jerusalem and other points in the area. Noted as Extrait de la Connaissance des Temps pour 1866— but perhaps printed before the 1866 publication? OCLC locates six holdings: five in France (including BNF) + Yale.
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Vignes, L[ouis]. Extrait des notes d'un voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, dans le Wady Arabah, sur la rive gauche de Jourdain et dans le désert de Palmyre. Publié sous les auspices de M. le duc de Luynes. Paris: Henry Plon, 1865. 36 cm. 79pp + original wrappers. Slight sunning on spine, otherwise a fine, untrimmed copy. The rare first publication of Luynes’ famous expedition, published here two years before his death. The work is, principally, a descriptive key to the two rare maps [see below] that Vignes had prepared. In fact, in the very first sentence of his prefatory address to the Duc, Vignes (writing from Beyrouth) announces that he is sending back two maps comprising all of the territory that they covered on the voyage. OCLC locates four holdings: BNF Aix-Marseille, British Library, and National Library of Israel.
[SEPARATE PUBLISHED MAPS, PRIOR TO 1874 REPORT]
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[MAP 1] Vignes, [Louis] and Combe. Carte du Wady Arabah et du Lit du Wady el Jeib. Paris: Lemercier, 1865. 90 x 63 cm. Engraved map (by Erhard, Georges. With red (route lines) and blue (water) color printed. Two small tears on edge of top blank border, otherwise a fine copy. The one OCLC entry muses “probably from” the Luynes report, but it wasn’t. It was obviously one of the two maps referenced in advertisement for the 1865 Extrait des notes d'un voyage d'exploration, but were not ready at the time of publication. OCLC notes eight holdings: four in France (including the BNF), British Library, Oxford, National Library of Israel and the Univ. of Wisconsin/Milwaukee.
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[MAP 2] Vignes, [Louis] and Combe. Carte du cours inférieur du Jourdain de la Mer Morte: et des régions qui l'avoisinent. Paris: Lemercier, 1865. 90 x 63.5 cm. Engraved map (by Erhard, Georges). With red (route lines) and blue (water) color printed. Fine copy. A much larger version before its republication in the Atlas [see below], of the same area and focusing on the Dead Sea and the lands north of the Sea. OCLC notes eight holdings: four in France (including the BNF), British Library, National Library of Israel, Illinois, and the Univ. of Wisconsin/ Milwaukee.
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[MAP 3] Vignes, [Louis] and Le Docteur Combe. Réduction des Cartes du Cours Inférieur du Jourdain de la Mer Morte, du Wady Arabah et du Wady el Jeib dressées en1864, sous les auspices de Me. De Luc de Luynes. Paris: Lemercier, 1866. 74 x 37 cm. Engraved map (by Erhard, Georges). With red (route lines) and blue (water) color printed. Fine copy. Essentially the same map that was included in the full report’s 1874 Atlas, but here without the added background color. The printer, Lemercier, did issue a separate (linen-backed) version of this map in 1866, Reduction des cartes du cours interieur du Jourdain de la Mer Morte du Wady Arabah et du Wady El Jeib dresses en 1864 sous les auspices de M. Le Duc de Luynnes—linenbacked, folded and in a cloth binding. OCLC only cites the BNF copy of map.
THE COMPLETE, POSTHUMOUS REPORT
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Volume I: Relation du Voyage. ii,, 388pp. With Appendices (pp.335-376) and a detailed index (pp.377-388). With numerous woodcuts throughout of “fragments of architecture, plans, views, landscape, lead medals, glasses of Sidon, etc. etc.” Advertisement for the entire work, printed on the rear wrappers, notes that each volume was to be sold separately (at different prices) and that Volume I was “accompanied by a large itinerary map [printed] in several colors” [see below]. Some scattered foxing, varies with signatures, but overall fine.
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Volume II: Vignes, Louis. De Petra a Palymyre [and] Mauss & Sauvaire. Voyage de Jérusalem a Karak et a Chaubak [226]pp. Original wrappers. Unopened; excellent condition.
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Volume III: Lartet, Louis. Geologie. vi, 326pp + 14 plates bound at the end of the volume, including two large color-printed engraved maps by Lartet, mounted stubs—Carte Geologique du Bassin de la Mer Morte et Des Regions de la Syrie, de la Palestine et de l’Arabie Pétrée , and Carte Geologique des Bords de la Mere Morte— plus two color-printed double-page plates of geologic views and diagrams—plus two other engraved plates and eight lithographed plates of specimens (e.g., fossils). Also with seven small wood-cuts in the text.
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[VOLUME IV] Atlas. Paris: Bertrand, [1874]. 36.5 cm. Original printed blue boards with cloth spine and three string-ties, in fine condition. Volume complete with 85 plates and maps, including: * Two folding colored maps; * One engraved plate of the expedition's vessel; * 64 photogravure plates by Charles Nègre after Louis Vignes’ original photographs (illustrating the Luynes expedition) numbered 1-64 (includes one double-paged plate); * 18 plates [numbered 1-18], including four maps and plans (one double-page), and 14 tinted lithographed plates by Ciceri after photographs by Vignes and Sauvaire (illustrating the Mauss expedition).