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[WOOD]. The Ruins of Palmyra...1752 uncut first ed

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London: 1753. Folio (570 x 385 mm). 58 engraved plates only (of 59, numbered I-XXXIX, XLI-LVII: plate I, a panorama, is on 3 plates), 3 full-page engraved illustrations of inscriptions. Contemporary half calf over marbled paper-covered boards, uncut. Condition: lacking plate XL, text leaf S (pp.33/34) with 300mm. horizontal tear, plates XLIX, L and LI with tears to the outer blank margins; binding worn, endpapers torn with loss. Provenance: Edmons, Viscount Perry (gift to his daughter); Diana Jane Knox, Lady Ranfurly (inscription, noting the she was given the book by her father on 12 May 1796). large uncut copy of the first edition of this important work: "Wood's Ruins of Palmyra (1753) was by all accounts a triumph such as no English architectural book had ever before achieved. Here was the first of a new breed of archaeological works presenting the results of on-the-spot investigations of ancient monuments, with ostensibly accurate measured drawings of the ruins, precise descriptions of the state and the site in which they were discovered, and exact copies of what inscriptions there were. This material was intended to serve lovers of antiquity, scholars, artists and architects. Its publication was greeted with widespread acclaim throughout Europe." (Harris British Architectural Books and Writers). Cicognara 2722; Cohen/de Ricci 916; Fowler 443; Harris 939; Millard II, 92.

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