Folio. Volume I: L’Egypte et Le Sinai: 318 pp., [1], 9 maps, 75 photographic plates by the author, contemporary half-calf with slightly rubbed marbled boards, title gilt on raised decorated spine, scattered foxing, ex-libris Bibliotheca Majoris Cartusie / Volume II: La Palestine et La Syrie: 354 pp., [1], 76-148 photographic plates by author, 5 maps, half-titles, modern cloth, new endpapers, title gilt on label, last blank leaf soiled, index, the volumes have different binding, Librairie Catholique de L’Oeuvre de Saint Paul, Paris, first edition, 1886 - 1887.

Synopsis

Rare not mentioned in major bibliographies of the Near East. A highly important expedition made by the Biblical scholar Raboisson, for the purpose of discovering the course of the River Jordan. Raboisson travelled up the Nile, making a valuable photographic record of the major sites, thence crossing via Sinai into Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.
Raboisson was a French clergy, and a member of the French Photographic Society between 1884 and 1894. The photographs published in this book are the only records of his photographic activities. In his text many references about his photographic activities, and the difficulty he faces, especially when he tried to photograph the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. In Lebanon, he took photographs of Baalbeck, and St. Joseph University at Beirut. [Not in Blackmer or Atabey].