Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples by Palma di Cesnola, Luigi - 1878: A Narrative of Researches and Excavations During Ten Years' Residency in That Island

456 pages. Very good condition, taupe cloth binding with gold-stamped author, title and decoration, and red-stamped Cypriot decorative devices on front and rear boards. A little fraying at head and heel of spine, a little corner-bumping and tanning of spine. All pages bright and tight, with perhaps a little age-darkening; binding solid. Many black-and-white tissue-protected plates. Bears bookplate of K.M. Setton (1914-1995) of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Gen. Luigi Palma di Cesnola (1832 – 1904) was an Italian-American diplomat, amateur archaeologist and soldier, veteran of the Austrian and Crimean Wars, and the United States Civil War, where he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

He was United States consul at Larnaca on Cyprus from 1865 to 1877, where he extensively excavated and collected (some would say looted) a great number of antiquities. His collection was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1872, just two years after its charter; it remains an extremely important collection today. Palma di Cesnola subsequently became its first Director, where he remained until his death.

This book has become very hard to find, and remains one of the premiere sources of information on a vast number of Cypriot antiquities, valuable for its detailed descriptions of items and the circumstances of their finding; it is also a well-written travelogue and description of life in Cyprus toward the end of Ottoman rule, and provides descriptions of Cesnola's dealings with Turkish authorities, who found him quite troublesome.