The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia. From Drawings Made On The Spot By David Roberts, R.A. With Historical Descriptions, By The Revd. George Croly, L.L.D. Lithography By Louis Haghe. - Vol. 1. (2.)
RA Collection: Book
Record number
06/4796
Imprint
London,: F.G. Moon, 20 Threadneedle Street, Publisher In Ordinary To Her Majesty., MDCCCXLII. (- MDCCCXLIII.), Day & Haghe Lithrs. to the Queen.
Vol. I: [Frontis. (port.), t.pl., dedic.] - List Of Subscribers - Notice Of Mr. Roberts's Journey In The East - The Armorial Ensigns Of Jerusalem; The Vignette On The Title Page - Israel - [Illustrated texts, and plates] - Idumea - [Illustrated texts and plates] - Bethlehem - [Illustrated texts, and plates]. - Vol. II: [T.pl.] - [Illustrated texts, and plates]. (In both volumes each of the plates of views is preceded by a leaf of letter-press text which on its verso describes the plate and on its recto carries and describes an in-text view. This produces an equal number of plates and in-text illustrations; but in Volume 1 there is an additional in-text illustration, 'The Armorial Ensign Of Jerusalem', at the beginning of the book.) (In the Royal Academy's copy one of the plates has been separated from its accompanying letter-press text and in-text illustration - the plate'Approach To Mount Sinai' (carrying the date of Jany. 1 1845) being bound (incorrectly?) into Volume 1, while its preceding leaf of descriptive text is bound in (correctly?) at the end of Volume 2.) (Other variations are reported of other copies.)
Responsibility Note
The frontispiece portrait (Vol. 1) is signed as drawn on stone by C. Baugniet and by Day & Haghe Lithographers. The engraved title-plates are also signed by Day & Haghe Lithographers. Most plates are signed in the plate by David Roberts, and a few by Louis Haghe as lithographer (viz. Vol. I. pl. [13, 15] of Aug 18 1842, and pl. [18] of Oct 1 1842).
Each plate in both volumes (apart from the frontispiece portrait in Vol. 1) carries the publisher's imprint of F.G. Moon.
The work is dedicated by Francis Graham Moon to the Queen.
References
Travel In Aquatint And Lithography 1770-1860 From The Library Of J.R. Abbey ... A Bibliographical Catalogue Volume II (repr. 1991), no. 385, p.334-41 [describing a 3-vol. issue, 1842, 1843, 1849, but referring to an earlier 2-vol. issue]; R.V. Tooley, English Books With Coloured Plates 1790-1860 (1954; repr. 1987), no. 401, p.321-4.
B. Culliford, ed., David Roberts: From an antique land: travels in Egypt and the Holy Land (1989); H. Guiterman and B. Llewellyn, ed., David Roberts [exhibition catalogue] (1986); J. Ballantine, The life of David Roberts R.A. (1866).
M. Twyman, Lithography 1800-1850 (1970), esp. p.220-5.
Summary Note
The publication-date of 1842 is given on the title-page of Volume I. Plate [5] carries no date, but all other plates carry dates within 1841 May - July (pl. 1-4, 6-12, 14, 24, 26), or 1842 July - December (pl. [113, 15-23]), apart from the last plate, which carries the date of June 1 1844. The frontispiece portrait also carries the date of 1844 (and an additional plate, possibly bound in this volume in error, carries the date of Jan 1 1845). The in-text illustrations also carry dates, most ranging from May 1 1841 to Nov 1 1842 but the last carrying the date of Jany 1 1845.
The publication-date of 1843 is given on the title-plate of Volume 2. Its plates carry dates ranging from November 1 1842 to December 1 1843 (pl. 1, 2, 4-13, 15, 18) but also from May 1 to November 1 1844 (pl. 3, 14, 16, 17, 19-29, 30-33) and January 1 1845 (pl. 31, 34). The in-text illustrations carry dates ranging from November 1 1842 (pl.2) to September 18 1843 (pl. 1, 3-15), but also 1844 (pl. 16-30, 32-34) and January 1 1845 (pl. 31, 35).
Abbey states that the work was originally published between January 1842 and the end of 1845 in twenty parts, in eighteen wrappers, containing all the plates and illustrations described above - a map was added in later issues. Although 'Egypt, & Nubia' are mentioned on the title-plates, the three volumes devoted to those regions were published separately as Egypt & Nubia From Drawings made On The Spot By David Roberts R.A. ... (1846, 1849, 1849).
The plates of Volume I show views in Jerusalem, Petra, Bethlehem, Bethany, Jericho and Jordan Valley. The last plate shows a view of Suez. The additional plate (separated from its text, in Vol. 2) shows an approach to Mt. Sinai.
The plates in the second volume show Judaea (the Jordan, Jericho, Mar Saba monastery, Wilderness of Engadi), Beit Jibrin, Hebron, Askelon, Ashdod, Gaza, Lydda, Jaffa, Mt. Carmel, Ramla, St. Jean D'Acre, Cape Blanco, Tyre, Sarepta, Sidon, Baalbec, Jenin, Mt. Tabor; Galilee (Nazareth, Cana, Tiberias), Nablous (Shechem), Sebaste (Samaria), Akabah, Sinai (Monastery of St. Catherine, Mt. Horeb).
Abbey describes Roberts's Holy Land as 'one of the most important and elaborate ventures of nineteenth-century publishing, and it was the apotheosis of the tinted lithograph' and 'a technical feat on the part of Louis Haghe'. (Ruskin thought that Roberts's fidelity to his subjects was of a kind inevitably surpassed by photography.)
David Roberts's painting, 'The Gateway to the Great Temple at Baalbec' (corresponding to pl. [18] of Volume 2 of the present publication), was donated to the Royal Academy as his 'diploma work' on his accepting membership of the Academy in 1841.
Provenance
Presented by the publisher F. G. Moon, 1842-45 (acknowledged RA Council Minutes, IX, 256, 293, 307; X, 9, 23).
Copy Note
Imperfect: in Vol. I. lacks the leaf of text carrying and describing in-text illus. 'Wells of Moses' and describing pl. [25], 'Approach To Mount Sinai'.
Binding Note
20th-century half red calf, grey cloth-covered boards; spines lettered 'The Holy Land David Roberts Vol. I. (II.)', 'R.A.' and '1842(3)'.