London: Jennings and Chaplin, 1832. Sir William Gell (1777 – 1836) was an English classical archaeologist and illustrator. He published topographical illustrations of Troy and the surrounding area in 1804. He also published illustrations showing the results of archaeological digs at Pompeii. His numerous drawings of classical ruins and localities, executed with great detail and exactness, are preserved in the British Museum. Gell was a thorough dilettante, fond of society and possessed of little real scholarship. Nonetheless his topographical works became recognized text-books at a time when Greece and even Italy were but superficially known to English travelers. His best-known work is Pompeiana; the Topography, Edifices and Ornaments of Pompeii, published between 1817 and 1832, in the first part of which he was assisted by J. P. Gandy. Although his works have been superseded by later publications, they continue to provide valuable information for the study of classical topography. He is, together with his friends Edward Dodwell and Keppel Richard Craven, by some modern scholars seen as the founder of the study of the historical topography of the hinterland of Rome.His works and notebooks proved very valuable for the topographical studies done by Thomas Ashby at the beginning of the 20th century [Wikipedia]. The two volumes are bound in three quarter brown leather with red and blue marbled paper boards. Leather is scuffed, soiled, and bumped. Faded spine with title and volume number labels. Boards also have light scuffs. Hinges are a little tender but binding and text block are tight. Interior pages are quite clean and bright with some aging to page and occasionally to plate edges. Ownership signature on ffeps. With 88 handsome plates from drawings done by Gell, of which two are hand colored. There are also thirty chapter vignettes printed on a fine white paper and mounted. Very good condition. Octavo. Volume I: 198 pages; Volume II: 207 pages. ARCH/052021. More

London: Printed at the University Press in Cambridge by Richard Watts for Longman, Hurst, Orme and Rees, 1807. Hardcover. Scarce first edition of this influential work that was based upon studies undertaken by Wilkins during a four year tour of Greece, Italy and Asia Minor from 1801 to 1805. The book was greatly influential in the revival of the Greek Revival style in English architecture. A folio volume bound in later green buckram with tears along spine, bumping, rubbing, and soiling. The book shows moderate wear, with moderate foxing and age toning, particularly in the margins. A few of the plate images are also affected but for the most part the images themselves are clean. There are 73 engraved plates including one fold-out, eleven vignettes, and three in text maps. Twenty-one of the plates are sepia acquatints. Despite condition issues this is still a nice copy of this important book. ARCH/041321. Very Good -. More