298 - VOLNEY, C.-F. de Chassebœuf, Count of. A Journey to Syria and Egypt in the Years 1783, 1784, and 1785.

VOLNEY, C.-F. de Chassebœuf, Count of. A Journey to Syria and Egypt in the Years 1783, 1784, and 1785. Second edition of this famous travelogue, which served as a guide for Bonaparte in preparing his Egyptian expedition. Paris, published by Desenne and Volland, 1787. 2 volumes in-8, each bound in speckled brown half-basane, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, title and volume number labels in black basane. XVI and 383 pp.; VIII and 458 pp., 2 unnumbered folios (approval, privilege). 2 fold-out maps and two fold-out plates engraved in intaglio by Gaitte. Bindings rubbed with some scuffing and small wormholes (especially on the first volume), scattered foxing, a small loss of paper at the lower corner of the map of the Temple of Baalbek. Second edition, published the same year as the original, of this major work of 18th-century travel literature. With its scientific approach and valuable analyses of the Mamluk army, the caravanserais, and the physical geography of the Levant, this groundbreaking work served as an indispensable preparatory guide for Bonaparte’s 1798 expedition to Egypt. A complete copy featuring its two maps (a map of Egypt in Volume I and a map of Syria in Volume II), the plan of the Temple of the Sun at Baalbek (Volume II), and the spectacular panoramic view of the ruins of Palmyra in the Syrian desert (Volume II). The set is in good condition, bound in period bindings.