Fine Books and Manuscripts

Travels in Egypt and Nubia. London: Lockyer Davis and Charles Reymers, 1757.2 volumes, folio (481 x 305 mm). Half-titles, 2 engraved frontispieces, engraved headpieces, tailpieces, and initials, 160 engraved plates on 162 leaves. (One plate with short marginal tear repaired.) Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, smooth spines gilt, red and green morocco lettering-pieces gilt. FIRST EDITION of the first detailed survey of Egypt by a European. Norden arrived in Alexandria in 1737, and surveyed the course of the Nile below the first Cataract. He made detailed observations of the pyramids. "This important work was the earliest attempt at an elaborate description of Egypt, and its plates are the most significant previous to those done by Denon" (Blackmer). This copy with the text for both volumes bound in vol.I, and all plates bound in vol.II. A FINE COPY. Blackmer 1211.