Maxime Du Camp - Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie. - 1852

The book has been seen and physically examined by two Catawiki experts.

Égypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie. Photographic drawings collected during the years 1849, 1850, and 1851 accompanied by explanatory text and preceded by an introduction by Maxime Du Camp, responsible for an archaeological mission in the East by the Department of Public Instruction.
Paris, Gide & J. Baudry, publishers, 1852

Pages: 61 + 125 illustrated plates (imprimerie phographique Blanquart-Evrard processus) + 3 engraved plates (a double page).

Original restored wrapper; modern flyleaf

Size: 33.5 x 45.5 x 8.0 cm

In very good condition. Traces of natural foxing in most of the pages, focused on edges but not compromising plates. Little cracking to internal hinges pages 20-30; easily repairable by binder and no damage to the binding itself

Maxime Du Camp (1822-1894), French writer and journalist, learned the art of calotype at Gustave Le Gray. In 1849, he travelled under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, to the Middle East. Accompanied by the novelist Gustave Flaubert, he spent a year and a half to photograph sites.

Blanquart-Evrard had published the procedure of the calotype for the first time in France in 1847, after studying the work of Fox Talbot. In 1850, he developed the printing process on fibre paper, a new technique that accelerates printing of photographs and allows the publication of works such as those of Du Camp.