Gaspard Fossati | Aya Sofia Constantinople, London, 1852, morocco-backed cloth boards

Property from the Loverdos Collection

Gaspard Fossati

Aya Sofia Constantinople: as recently restored by order of H.M. the Sultan Abdul Medjid. London: Colnaghi & Co., 1852

First edition, large folio (556 x 372mm.), lithographed title and 25 tinted lithographed plates, publisher's maroon morocco-backed cloth boards, closed tear at outer margin of final plate (extending into image), text loose, stained with slight wear, repairs to spine ends

Court architect to the Russian royal family, Fossati travelled to Constantinople in 1837 to work on the building of the Russian Embassy. He completed the project in 1845 and entered the service of the Porte, designing the archives building, the telegraph-office, the hospital of the Ministry of War, as well as churches and private villas. In 1847, he was charged with the restoration of Hagia Sophia: this took two years and involved the removal of buttresses which had been added to protect the structure and the uncovering of valuable mosaics. The mosaics were subsequently covered up and are not illustrated in the present work. Fossati intended to publish a separate work on the mosaics, but this never materialised.

LITERATURE:

Abbey, Travel 397; Atabey 454; Blackmer 619