as Recently Visited and Described by Claudius James Rich, Esq. Resident for the East India Company at Baghdad with Illustrative Engravings [together with] Observations on the Remains of Ancient Egyptian Grandeur and Superstition as Connected with Those of Assyria: Forming the Appendix to Observations on the Ruins of Babylon.

By Maurice, Thomas

London: Sold by John Murray, Printed for the Author. 1816 & 1818, First Edition. Hardcovers. Two Volumes in One. Large Quarto – 29.2cm. [iv] viii, 164, [iv]; and [viii] xvi, 222pp. Recent period sstyle binding in half-brown calf and marbled boards with gilt ruling’ spine with five raised bands, gilt titles on brown and green morocco tabs, gilt decorations. Internally clean and well-preserved but with prior ownership stamp in the upper corner on page 1, surface carbon marks on some latter pages, otherwise a clean copy, paper with pleasing acoustical and tactile quality.

With four engraved plates in the first section, two in the second as called for. The plates listed: The Supposed Ruins of the Tower of Babel; Ancient Inscription on the Walls of Persepolis, The Great Pagoda of Tanjore; A Mexican Temple to the Sun and Moon, Vara Avatar of India [&] Hermes Anubis of Egypt, and The Ancient Zodiac of Egypt.

Thomas Maurice was an assistant librarian at the British Museum. The book started out in the form of a review of the “Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon” (1813) by Claudius James Rich, the East India Company resident at Baghdad, but soon grew in scope. Technically the second section is an Appendix to the first section produced two years earlier, and is often referred to as a volume in its own right — both sections are typically found bound in a single volume despite their being published two years apart.

Maurice’s particular concern was to establish whether the Egyptians or the Assyrians were the first true astronomers. His personal leaning was that the Assyrians were the first astronomers. In the course of exploring this concept, Maurice drew upon other travelers’ accounts, both modern and classical, and created this massive work of comparative religion and mythology, with a central focus on the civilizations of the ancient near East and the Indian subcontinent.

$900.00 -