The Holy Land.: After lithographs by Louis Haghe. From Original Drawings … With Historical Descriptions by the Rev. George Croly, LL.D.

London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.,, [1878-1883]. A handsome late Victorian quarto edition of Roberts's The Holy Land, in three parts: division I, Jerusalem and Galilee; division II, the Jordan and Bethlehem; division III, Idumea and Petra. Roberts's work "was the apotheosis of the tinted lithograph" (Abbey, Travel). The first quarto edition was issued by Day & Son in 1855-6. David Roberts (1796-1864) enjoyed a wide popularity in his day for his European views, but his outstanding success was certainly The Holy Land, and it is on this that the modern appreciation of his work is based. In August 1838 he arrived in Alexandra to start a carefully planed enterprise. It is claimed that he was the first European to have unlimited access to the mosques in Cairo with the proviso that he did not commit desecration by using brushes made from hog's bristle. Leaving Cairo, he sailed up the Nile to record the monuments represented in the Egypt & Nubia division of the work, travelling as far as Wadi Halfa and the Second Cataract. At the time of publication it was these views that excited the most widespread enthusiasm. On his return to Cairo, Roberts formed a party which included John Kinnear, who left his own account of the ensuing journey, Cairo, Petra and Damascus, in 1839. The party adopted Arab dress and set out with over twenty camels and a native bodyguard. Their route to Petra took them via mount Sinai, St. Catherine's Monastery and Akaba. The period at Petra (or Idumea) was for Roberts one of the high spots of the entire trip. Only trouble with local tribes forced him to move on to Hebron. From here rumours of plague in Jerusalem forced a detour to Gaza, Askalon and Jaffa before it was safe to enter the Holy City. From here he also visited Jericho, Lake Tiberias and other biblical sites. The route can easily be traced since each plate throughout the work is precisely dated. Finally, Roberts made his way to the Mediterranean via Nablus and Nazareth and then visited the coastal cities of Tyre, Sidon and Acre. Baalbek was the last objective achieved before a combination of intermittent fever and the worsening political situation forced him to abandon hopes of reaching Damascus and Palmyra. Roberts instead went to Beruit. He had, however, achieved enough to be made a Royal Academician on his return to England. Roberts had already discussed publication of the views with Finden before leaving for the Near East, but on his return both he and Murray, who was also approached, baulked at the risks involved in a publication of the size and grandeur envisaged. Moon, however, did accept the challenge and Louis Haghe agreed to lithograph Roberts' drawings - which, as Roberts acknowledged, was work hardly less important than his own. The Reverend George Croly (1780-1860), poet, and well-known contributor to The Literally Gazette, was engaged to write the text from Roberts journal. As exhibitions of the original drawings was opened in London in 1840. They created a considerable stir and drew great praise from Ruskin. The exhibition catalogue also served as a prospectus for the projected work, and was apparently very successful in bringing forward subscribers, without which any work of this size would have been doomed. The chronology of the work's publishing history is complicated, not least by the various states in which it was available, and the method of issue in either parts or as complete volumes. The present work is published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Compan; that form of the company's name being used between 1878 and 1883, when William Petter retired. Quarto (318 x 24 mm). Contemporary red hard-grain morocco, spine with raised bands, gilt in compartments, lettered direct, covers elaborately gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. With 120 tinted lithographed plates, mostly with tissue guards, from drawings by David Roberts. Ownership signature on front flyleaf of one William Wilmot Withall (1863-1940). A touch of rubbing, front cover with small indentation and minor nick to fore-edge, opaque tape the length of the gutter of half-title with show through on preceding leaf, half-title also with a short tear at foot, scattered foxing, minor offsetting from tissue guards. A very good copy in bright morocco. Abbey, Travel 385 (for the 1842-9 edition of the Holy Land).