4to. 51 pp., 3 lithographs of which 1 is folding / 36 pp., [1], 1 lithograph, illustrations in text, contemporary embossed full calf, lightly faded and rubbed round edges, title gilt on decorated spine, gilt motif on upper & lower covers, all edges gilt, spine broken, scattered foxing, issued on behalf of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Court and State Printing, Vienna, first edition, 1854-55.

Synopsis

Alfred von Kremer (1828 – 1889) was an Austrian diplomat and Orientalist. He served as Consul in Cairo, and Beirut in 1870. He translated and published in Vienna in 1852 the work of Ibn Chahna on the history of Aleppo, and many other works on Arabia and Syria. He travelled to Syria and Egypt on behalf of the Imperial Academy of Sciences from 1849 to 1851. Apart from working in the libraries of Haleb (Aleppo) and Damascus, he was commissioned especially to carry out a topography of Damascus.
A few Orientalists have, since the 1850s, laid the foundation for the study of the urban fabric of Damascus. The earliest of those was this work by Alfred von Kremer which was based on a land survey and field study of historical monuments. His topographic work was further developed during the World War I by two German researchers Karl Wulzinger and Carl Watzinger, and chrystallized in the 1930s by the French Orientalist Jean Sauvaget.
Bibliographic reference: Henze III, 79.