With Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan, and the Desert: Being the Result of a Second Expedition Undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum

By Layard, (Sir) Austin Henry

London: John Murray, 1853. First Edition. Thick 8vo – 22.1 cm. [xxiii], [1] Errata, 686pp. Index. With a fold-out lithographic frontispiece, 15 tinted lithograph plates, maps, and plans including several fold-outs, over 200 wood-engraved illustrations in text. Bound in contemporary royal blue full-calf with bright gilt ruling on covers, spine divided into gilt ruled compartments enclosing blind tooled ornaments between 5 raised bands, 2 morocco title labels, marbled endpapers and page edges. Minor wear to extremities; interior is complete and extraordinarily clean — overall a very nice, attractive and complete copy of an important publication.

Layard’s second expedition, undertaken in 1849, narrating and illustrating his investigations to the ruins of Babylon and the mounds of southern Mesopotamia. His findings are recorded in this profusely illustrated work, “Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon”. As a result of his explorations and excavations, Layard was able to supply the British Museum with the greater part of its collection of Assyrian antiquities. In addition to the archeological value of his work in identifying Kouyunjik as the site of Nineveh, Layard’s work provided a great mass of materials for scholars at the time and presently. Layard started his second expedition, investigating the ruins of Babylon and the mounds of southern Mesopotamia. He is credited with discovering the Library of Ashurbanipal during this period. This volume is considered a classic of archaeology and travel writing.

$750.00 -