WOOD (Robert).
The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmor, in the Desart.
“The discovery of Palmyra at the end of the seventeenth century resulted eventually in one of the most famous antiquarian publications of the following century, Robert Wood’s Palmyra… one of the most superb examples of contemporary scholarship… with magnificent engravings from drawings by his companion artist, Giovanni Battista Borra…” (Searight, The British in the Middle East, 1979, pp. 72-74).
“This is one of the most important architectural source books of the Eighteenth century. Robert Wood (c. 1717-1771) first visited the Levant in 1742. In 1750, accompanied by John Bouverie, James Dawkins, and the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Borra, he made a protracted journey through Asia Minor and Syria, eventually reaching the ruins of Palmyra and Balbec in 1751. Dawkins produced the official account of the tour, while Wood did the work on the topography and inscriptions. The plates were engraved by P. Fourdrinier, J. Müller and T. Major from drawings by Borra” (Sotheby’s/ Navari).
Blackmer 1834 (citing the first French edition of the same year).
