Atheniensia, Or Remarks On The Topography And Buildings Of Athens. - By William Wilkins, A. M. F.A.S. Late Fellow Of Gonvil And Caius College, Cambridge.
The frontispiece is signed as engraved by Thomson & Hall 14 Bury Strt. Bloomsby. The other plate is unsigned.
The printer's name is repeated in the colophon.
The work is dedicated by W. Wilkins to Henry Pelham, Duke of Newcastle.
References
Royal Institute of British Arechitects, British Architectural Library ... Early printed books, 4 (2001), no. 3654, p.2398-9; L. Navari, Greece and the Levant: the catalogue (1989), 1798.
On Wilkins see R.W. Liscombe, William Wilkins 1778-1839 (1980). Studies of the Greek Revival are J.M. Crook, The Greek Revival (rev. 1995); D. Constantine, Early Greek travellers and the Hellenic ideal (1984); D. Wiebenson, Sources of Greek Revival architecture (1969).
Summary Note
The five chapters are headed, 1. On the Origin of Grecian Architecture; 2. On the Plan of Athens; 3. On the Acropolis; 4. On the Buildings of the City; 5. On the Athenian Inscription.
The folding frontispiece is a map of Athens. The double plate shows a view, plan and section of the Erechtheum.
Wilkins had travelled in Greece and southern Italy from 1801 to 1803. His most celebrated works were the University College (1825-32) and combined National Gallery and Royal Academy (1838), in London. In 1826 he was elected a Royal Academician, and from 1837 to 1839 served as the Academy's Professor of Architecture.
Provenance
The front pastedown carries an armorial bookplate of Westport House - the seat of the Browne family, who in 1800 had been created Marquesses of Sligo in the Irish peerage. It probably indicates that this copy belonged to Howe Peter Browne, 2nd marquess of Sligo (1788-1845; succeeded 1809), who travelled in Greece and collected Greek antiquities. The pastedown is also inscribed in pencil, 'Pur. 3/11/00 [or 50?] (Pagan) £520'.
Binding Note
19th-century calf; gilt-decorated spine, green morocco spine-label lettered 'Topography Of Athens'.
Subject
Architecture, Greek - Public buildings - Greece - Attica - Athens - History
Topographic surveys - Topographic maps - Art history - Views - Plans - Elevations - Sections - Great Britain - 19th century