Views in Palestine / Views in the Ottoman Empire – Hand-colored Aquatints, after Paintings by Luigi Mayer – London, 1804

Views in Palestine / Views in the Ottoman Empire – Hand-colored Aquatints, after Paintings by Luigi Mayer – London, 1804
Views in Palestine / Views in the Ottoman Empire after Paintings by Luigi Mayer. London: Printed by Thomas Bensley for R. Bowyer, 1804. Two parts in one volume. English and French.
A book about the Ottoman Empire, accompanied by 48 hand-colored aquatints, after paintings by the artist Luigi (Ludwig) Mayer (1755-1803). The paintings were created by Mayer for British diplomat and orientalist Robert Ainslie during the latter's term as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
The book is divided into two parts (separate title page for each part). The first part is dedicated to Palestine and includes 24 plates, most of which depict Jerusalem and and its environs (including a view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a view of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Pool of Bethesda, the Pool of Siloam, the Tomb of Absalom, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and Bethlehem, among others). The second part, which is about several other sites in the Ottoman Empire, particularly the environs of the Turkish city Karaman, contains 24 plates. This part has two title pages, one in English and one in French, dated 1803.
Sir Robert Ainslie (ca. 1730-1812), a British diplomat of Scottish origin, was a numismatist, Orientalist, and art collector. He served as Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1776 and 1792. Luigi Mayer was commissioned by Ainslie to make paintings and drawings of the important sites in the Ottoman Empire, and engravings and lithographs were printed after his works.
The prints in this book were first published in the years 1801-1803 in separate volumes with an additional volume of prints depicting sites in Egypt. In 1804 the three volumes were compiled into a one-volume edition titled "Views in Egypt, Palestine, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire".
[1] leaf, 47, [1] pp + [24] plates; [2] leaves (English title page and French title page), 40 pp + [24] plates, 45 cm. Good overall condition. Stains and some worming to margins. Embossed stamp at margin of first title page. Some leaves are partly detached. Fine leather binding, with gilt decorations, worn and slightly damaged (mostly along spine and margins). Front binding partly detached, with a label on the inside.