Louis Dupré | Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople, Paris, 1825, contemporary red half morocco gilt

Louis Dupré

Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople, ou collection de portraits, vues et costumes Grecs et Ottomans. Paris: Imprimerie de Dondey-Dupré, 1825.

FIRST EDITION, large folio (575 x 499 mm), half-title, 40 hand-coloured lithographed plates, 12 lithographed illustrations in the text, double-page lithographed plate of a Turkish passport, contemporary red half morocco gilt, gilt-ruled covers and spine, spine with raised bands in seven compartments, third and fifth lettered in gilt, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, spotted (mostly confined to text leaves), several plates brown or spotted, rebacked retaining most of original spine, extremities and edges rubbed

"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.

PROVENANCE:

Edward Smith-Stanley (1775-1851), 13th Earl of Derby: armorial bookplate; Christoper Tower: bookplate

LITERATURE:

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