DISCOVERING
THE ANCIENT CITIES OF LYCIA

FELLOWS, CHARLES. A JOURNAL WRITTEN DURING AN EXCURSION IN ASIA MINOR. London: John Murray, 1839. 8vo. Later 19th-century half brown morocco. x, List of Plates, [blank], 347 pages. Engraved frontispiece, double-page map with route traced in red, twenty lithographed plates (one double-page), numerous illustrations in the text. One corner scuffed and worn, others lightly rubbed, frontispiece foxed. Very good.

FIRST EDITION. Fellows was the "English archaeologist who discovered ruins of the cities of Lycia - in antiquity a region of present-day southwestern Turkey . . . . In 1832 he began travelling through Italy, Greece, and the Middle East, sketching as he went. Many of his drawings were used to illustrate Lord Byron's Childe Harold" (Encyclopedia Britannica). In 1838 he "landed at Smyrna, whence his explorations in part of the interior of Asia Minor led him to districts unknown to Europeans, and he thus discovered the ruins of a number of cities which existed earlier than 300 B.C. Entering Lycia he explored the river Xanthus . . ." (DNB). There "he found the ruins of Xanthus, the ancient capital of Lycia. About fifteen miles further up he came upon the ruins of Tlos. After taking sketches of the most interesting objects, and copying a number of inscriptions, he returned to England, where his publication of 'A Journal Written During an Excursion in Asia Minor . . .' created such an amount of interest that Lord Palmerston, at the request of the trustees of the British Museum, applied to the sultan of Turkey for permission to bring away a number of the Lycian works of art" (Id.).

From 1838 to 1844, "Sir Charles Fellows undertook numerous expeditions to Lycia, during which many important discoveries were made and a large quantity of marbles were shipped to England. The publication of this, his first account, caused great excitement, particularly as the area was little known to Europeans" (Blackmer Sale). Fellows was knighted in 1845. Atabey 424. Blackmer Sale 583. Weber I, 291. BT000018.

$1100

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