Description
Montfaucon, Dom Bernard de, OSB
L'antiquité expliquée et représentee en figures. Paris: Florentine Dealune [et al.], 1719. First edition, 5 volumes in 10, folio, (440 x 285 mm.), title-pages in red and black, with 977 (of 998) engraved plates (including the engraved portrait plate of the dedicatee) of which 140 are double page, with engraved vignettes as head-pieces, contemporary mottled calf, gilt central panel and broad gilt tooled boarders over a green background, later rebacking, some small patches of scuffing, occasional leaves a little discoloured, and splits in two or three margins (no loss), tear in plate 200 of volume 5 part 2 (no loss), otherwise a fine copy on large paper. (10)
Note: Brunet III 861-1862; Cohen-De Ricci 731-732; Lipperheide 104; RIBA Catalogue 3 pp. 1170-1172 for the English edition
"Montfaucon intuitively saw what benefit might accrue to history from the study of figured monuments, and if he was not the creator of archaeology, he was at least the first to show what advantages might be derived from it ... In 1719 he published "L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures" (10 volumes folio, Paris), in which he reproduces, methodically grouped, all the ancient monuments that might be of use in the study of religion, domestic customs, material life, military institutions, and funeral rites of the ancients." (Catholic Encyclopaedia) The work was hugely successful and promptly ran to a second edition to which was added a supplement of five volumes. It was promptly translated into English. "Robert Adam owned a copy of the French edition ... and many have seen influences of Montfaucon's plates in some of Adam's Gothic designs." (RIBA Cat.)
Provenance: With the armorial book-plate of George Forbes, third Earl of Grannard (1685-1765).