52 - [JACQUES PAUL BABIN]: RELATION DE L'ÉTAT PRÉSENT DE LA VILLE D ATHÈNES. LYON, 1674

[JACQUES PAUL BABIN]: RELATION DE L'ÉTAT PRÉSENT DE LA VILLE D ATHÈNES. LYON, 1674 First edition. In 12mo, contemporary full leather with some light wear at covers, spine richly gilt, text clean and bright with a light marginal stain in a few pages, complete folding view ,[6], 182p., [2], overall in very good condition. The Relation of the Present State of the City of Athens was written by Jacques-Paul Babin, a Jesuit missionary and it is considered the first modern archaeological and topographical description of Athens. Babin was a Jesuit father who spent significant time in the Levant. He lived in Athens several times, which allowed him to move beyond the superficial tourist observations of the time. His work was originally a long description sent to the Abbé Pécoil in Lyon in 1672, which Spon recognized as so valuable that it deserved a full publication .Before this publication, Athens was largely a kind of lost city to Western Europe, often thought of as a collection of ruins or a small village. Babin’s account was a milestone of rediscovery, it is the first modern account, it is the first book dedicated specifically to Athens and it shifted European focus back to the city as a living historical site rather than just a name in classical texts. Babin visited Athens in the early 1670s and wrote his description before the 1687 Venetian bombardment, he describes the Parthenon while it was still largely intact. The book was edited and published by the famous physician and antiquarian Jacob Spon, who will also personally visit Athens a few years later. Spon added his own notes and a preface, using Babin's letters as a foundation for what would later become the modern discipline of archaeology. Babin identifies and describes the major monuments, including in the Acropolis. He details the life of the Athenians under Ottoman rule, describing the social structure, the Greek Orthodox community, and the physical state of the city's streets and houses. The book contains one of the earliest schematic views of Athens, showing the Acropolis and the surrounding town as they appeared in the 1670s A milestone book for Greece.