Voyage d'exploration à la Mer Morte, à Petra, et sur la rive du Jourdain by Honoré d'Albert Luynes. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, [ca. 1874]. Four parts in three volumes (two volumes of text, one volume of plates). French and some Arabic. First edition.
In 1864, the Duke de Luynes (Honoré Théodore Paul Joseph d'Albert, duc de Luynes, 1802-1867) – a French humanist and collector, and patron of art and photography – led a research expedition to Palestine and its surrounding region. The expedition staff included the geologist Louis Lardet, the physician and naturalist Gustave Combe, and the naval lieutenant and amateur photographer Louis Vignes, who served as the expedition photographer. The expedition conducted measurements and surveys in the Dead Sea region and examined biblical sites. In the course of the study, Vignes used his camera to document the various places. In some cases, these were sites that had never been photographed before.
The sizable amounts of documentation collected by the expedition – one of the most comprehensive of its kind to be conducted in the Dead Sea region in the 19th century – was only published roughly ten years after the mission's return to France. Alongside the three volumes summarizing the expedition's work and its findings, there is an additional volume consisting of high-quality photogravure plates reproducing Vignes's original photographs. These reproductions were created by the French photographer Charles Nègre, a pioneering photogravure artist whose works were distinguished by their quality and precision. Nègre was chosen for this task following a photography competition, initiated by the Duke de Luynes, in which new photo-mechanical techniques for the mass production of photographs intended for publication were presented. Nègre did not win the competition, but the Duke nevertheless preferred his photogravures to the winner's photolithographs. Apart from the historical importance of this volume in the annals of Middle Eastern studies, it is regarded as a milestone in the development of photography and photobooks.
This is the first edition of the book documenting the research expedition of the Duke de Luynes – two volumes of text (comprising three parts) and a volume of plates. Includes 102 plates: 64 photogravure plates, plus maps and lithographs.
The first part of the book gives the Duke's own overview of the findings of his expedition. The second part contains a summary by Louis Vignes, in addition to an account of a separate research expedition funded by the Duke de Luynes and conducted by the architect Christophe-Edouard Mauss and the photographer Henri Sauvaire, from Kerak (Al-Karak) to Shoubak in the present-day Kingdom of Jordan. These parts include three plates: a view of the fortified Crusader castle of Kerak (lithograph after a photograph by Sauvaire), a map of Shoubak, and a (folded) map of the expedition route from Kerak to Shoubak.
The third part is mostly dedicated to the geology and paleontology of the region, and includes 14 lithographic plates: a geological map of the Dead Sea region (double-spread plate, in color), and plates featuring geological cross-sections, fossils, seashells, and more.
The volume of plates includes three unnumbered plates, including a (folded) map of the Dead Sea region; 18 numbered plates – four maps and fourteen lithographs after photographs by Louis Vignes and Henri Sauvaire; and 64 numbered plates – photogravures by Charles Nègre after photographs by Louis Vignes, documenting sites in Sidon, Tyre, Jenin, Nablus, Beth El, Jerusalem, Jericho (double-spread plate, with a view of Mar Saba monastery), the Dead Sea, Iraq Al-Amir, Oyun Musa, Petra, and more.
Three volumes. Vol. I (Parts 1-2): [4] ff., 388 pp; [3] ff., 182 pp., [1] f., 183-222 pp., [3] ff. + [3] plates. Vol. II (Part 3): [2] ff., VI, 326 pp. +14 plates. Vol. III: [3], 18, 64 plates. 36 cm. Overall good condition. Stains (to leaves of text and plates). Dark stains to some leaves and plates. Few tears. Minor blemishes to some plates. One plate (in Vol. III) detached. Minor worming to gutters of some plates (in Vol. III, not affecting prints). Different bindings, with stains and blemishes. Vol. I with quarter-leather red cloth binding (book title stamped in gold on binding); Vol. II with quarter-leather, paper sides binding (spine torn with upper portion detached; back board detached). Vol. III binding entirely restored with leather-like covering.
Literature: Poggi, Isotta. "History Turns Space into Place: A French Voyage to the Dead Sea Basin in 1864". Jerusalem Quarterly, No. 82 (Jerusalem: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2020): 23-37.