[Rarebooks] fa: ORIGINES or THE ORIGIN OF SEVERAL EMPIRES - William Drummond - 4 vols. 1824-29

[ArCh]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, April 7. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y2s4vvop

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[Sir William Drummond:] Origines; or Remarks on the Origin of Several Empires, States, and Cities. London: Printed by A. J. Valpy, 1824-29. First edition. Four volumes, 8vo (22 cm), in nineteenth-century half morocco and marbled boards; with six engraved maps and plates, four of which are folding (complete). Bindings with modest rubbing, edge-wear and bumps to the corners; one volume with unobtrusive damp-stain to the lower front board; some offsetting/spotting to and from the engravings, a few occasional small spots to the leaves, else very clean and sound, firmly bound.

An uncommon complete set, in uncommonly nice condition, of this monumental study of ancient history. With sections devoted to the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Iranian (i.e., Persian) Empires, Egypt (the entirety of vol. II), Phoenicia, Arabia, and Asia Minor (Lydians, Phrygians, etc.) A former MP from a rotten borough in Cornwall, William Drummond was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and subsequently envoy to the Kingdom of Naples, where he retired. The final volume was published posthumously, the author having died in Rome in 1828, and the work ends with a funeral ode, "Canzone per la Morte dell'Onorevolissimo Cavaliero Guglielmo Drummond," by "Jacopo" Mathias.