Monumental Ruins of Palmyra, Les Ruines de Palmyre c1719.

$295.00

Antique print after Corneille Bruin (Cornelis de Bruijn), one of the finest travel-writer-artists of his time.

Original copperplate engraving for French Benedictine Monk, Dom Bernard de Montfaucon's Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figure (Antiquities Explained and Represented in Figures), published by royal privilege in Paris c1719. Montaucon is considered to be one of the founders of the modern discipline of archaeology, and founder of palaeography (the study of ancient writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts).

1,000 metres long, the great colonnade constitutes the monumental axis of the city of Palmyra. With other perpendicular secondary streets also lined with columns, these columns connected the main public monuments, including the Temple of Bel, the Camp of Diocletian, the Agora, the Theatre, and other temples and living quarters. Outside the fortified enclosure stand the remains of a Roman aqueduct and immense necropolises. (This wonderful engraving shows the Terapyle, a monument of 16 columns which together with the facade of the Roman theatre were destroyed by jihadists during recent conflicts.)

Page size is 420 x 515mm (16.50 x 20.25 inches). To plate mark measures 330 x 425mm (13 x 16.75 inches)

42