Dupre. Voyage a Athenes et a Constantinople. Paris, 1825. folio, colour plates, twentieth-century blue half morocco gilt

DUPRÉ, LOUIS

Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople, ou collection de portraits, de vues, et de costumes grecs et ottomans. Paris: Dondey-Dupré, 1825-[1839]

FIRST EDITION, large folio (545 x 395mm.), half-title, 40 hand-coloured lithographed plates, double-page lithographed plate of a Turkish passport, 12 lithographed illustrations in the text, twentieth-century blue half morocco gilt, marbled boards, spine gilt, original livraison printed blue wrapper bound in, some light browning and spotting, folding passport with creases and neat repairs

"PROBABLY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL [BOOK] EVER PRODUCED ON GREECE AND TURKEY" (Blackmer).

In this celebrated work, Dupré records his experiences whilst travelling in the Levant in 1819. The landscapes and people he encountered are rendered with great skill in this series of lively and vividly coloured plates. While providing a chronicle of the journey, the text also serves as a commentary to the plates, providing a fascinating insight into the characters of the people he met – Ali Pasha of Ioannina, various princes and dignitaries, as well as the many Greeks, Turks and Albanians who acted as guides, hosts and patrons, as well as views of the major Athenian monuments of antiquity.

LITERATURE:

Atabey 381; Blackmer 517; Droulia 901; Weber I, 131