Mission de Phénicie (TWO VOLUMES)

DESCRIPTION

220 X 310; [26, Texte], 888 pp. [Album], 70 plates some of which are in color, set in mint condition, new. A reprint of 1864 first edition of the Imprimerie Imperiale (Paris). In 1860, the historian Ernest Renan led an archaeological mission in Lebanon, following the expeditionary force of 6,000 men sent there by Napoleon III. The emperor intended in this way to put an end to the massacres between Christians and Druze. The buried cities of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Arados, and Amrit were excavated, with drawings and surveys being made. The discoveries began to be published from 1864 onward in the first volume of Mission de Phénicie (“The Mission in Phoenicia”), a highly significant contribution to knowledge of the Phoenician world. According to specialists, its historical and philological value was considerable. However, the view that Renan formed of Phoenician civilization and art was largely shaped—and limited—by his “Hellenocentrism.” In his opinion, Phoenician art “was, as soon as it developed a need for ornamentation, essentially an art of imitation; it never rose (.) to a style that was at once elegant and enduring.” As concluded by Pierre Rouillard, research director at the CNRS, Renan “was the first in a long line of archaeologists who were disappointed that the Phoenicians were not Greeks, or like the Greeks.”