Text Volume: 4to. [1], 355 pp., [1], half-title, small tear to margin of last 2 pages without any loss / Atlas: Folio. [1], 1 large double page map, 15 tinted lithographic plates by Eugene Cicéri or Léon Jean-Baptiste Sabatier after the author, 17 photo lithographed plates of inscriptions on stone printed by Lemercier using the Poitevin process, 80 plates of scripts on 40 sheets, contemporary half-calf, slightly rubbed and scuffed, speckled edges, some light foxing throughout, marbled endpaper, title gilt on spine, Gide et Cie, Paris, first edition, 1855-1859.

Synopsis

This is the first edition. A second edition of the text appeared in 12mo in 1861 and a third in 1873.
Pierre-Victorien Lottin (1810-1903) also known as Victor Lottin de Laval and René- Victorien Lottin, was a French painter and archaeologist. He developed a style of moulding named after him known as lottinoplastie (lottinoplastic). He was also a traveller and writer. From the age of eighteen, he started writing literature and published novels, which subjects were mainly taken from chronicles and memoirs of the Middle Ages. In 1835, he started a long series of voyages, which took him to Italy, Sicily, Greece, Asia Minor, Occidental Asia (in 1844) , Egypt and Sinai (in 1847). He travelled extensively in the Levant from 1843 to 1846. He made a second journey to Egypt from January to May 1850 for the purpose of exploring Mount Sinai; he brought back many copies of inscriptions and drawings of monuments from the Sinai Peninsula” (Leonora Navari).
Other than letters, reports and articles on Art, Archaeology and Science, Lottin de Laval also wrote Les Truands (1832); Marie de Medicis (1834); Robert le Magnifique (1835); Le Comte de Néty (1838); Andalousia ou La Perle des Andalouses (1842); Un An sur les Chemins (1837); Manuel Complet de Lottinoplastiques (1858); and this work “Voyage dans la Péninsule Arabique (1855-1859).
Bibliographic references: Blackmer, 10033 (without Atlas); Gay, 81; Ibrahim-Hilmy, I, 393; Hage Chahine, 2890.