117 - JOHANN EWERS: OTTON VON RICHTER WALLFAHRTEN IM MORGENLANDE AUS SEINEN TAGEBUCHERN UND BRIEFEN DARGESTELLT. BERLIN, 1822

JOHANN EWERS: OTTON VON RICHTER WALLFAHRTEN IM MORGENLANDE AUS SEINEN TAGEBUCHERN UND BRIEFEN DARGESTELLT. BERLIN, 1822 First edition, large in 4to, contemporary boards, edges slightly trimmed, complete the text volume 715p. and the portrait of Richter as frontis, text clean and bright, overall in very good condition. Richter travelled widely in Greece and the Levant during 1814-1816 just before the Greek Revolution. He was a brilliant young explorer but died young at the age of 24 in Smyrna during his travels. His long diaries and notes were edited by his companion Ewers. Richter was a trained scholar with deep knowledge of oriental languages, he saw many Greek places and monuments in little visited places (like Samothraki, Limnos, Mytilini, Samos) before they were damaged during the Revolution. He provides a detailed account of Chios when it was still the wealthiest and most intellectual island, a last record before the massacres of 1822. He documented the Greek thriving communities of Asia Minor, their schools and hospitals. He lived in Smyrna which was the cultural heart of Greece at the time. As a master in epigraphy, he meticulously copied Greek inscriptions. Richter spent time in Cyprus in 1816 at a time when the island was a neglected backwater of the Ottoman Levant. He spent significant time exploring the interior of the island and was the first one to correctly locate Amathus and Idalion. He documented several ruins around the island, he gives vivid descriptions of the life of Cypriot peasants and his accounts for Larnaca and Famagusta are vital .He was fascinated by the Cypriot dialect who could understand better than the Greek of the Aegean. The publication of the book by Ewers in 1822 served as Philhellenic propaganda, by showing a brilliant young German who gave his life while studying Greek antiquities fueled Philhellenism.