[Wood, Robert (1717?-1771)]

folio (543 x 369mm.), [6], 50pp., illustration: 3 full-page engravings in text, 59 engraved plates (numbered I-LVII, plate I comprising 3 plates; these are sometimes found joined forming a panorama), binding: contemporary speckled calf, spine in compartments gilt, plates I and II spotted, spine slightly worn, binding rubbed

BAL RIBA 3707; Fowler 443; Harris 939; Berlin Catalogue 1884; Blackmer 1834 (French edition); Cohen-de Ricci 916; not in Atabey

first edition. The publication of this work won widespread acclaim throughout Europe. "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 in which they were discovered, and exact copies of what inscriptions there were" (Harris). The plates were engraved by Pierre Fourdrinier, Thomas Major and J.S. Muller, Jr., after drawings by J.B. Borra, the Italian architect who accompanied Wood and James Dawkins on their tour of Asia Minor in 1750-51.