Auguste de FORBIN

The rare first edition of this journey to Sicily by the Count de Forbin. One frontispiece, ruins of the theater of Taormina, drawn by the Count de Forbin, and 2 plates of music of a Sicilian arietta, as well as 2 figures of coins.
Contemporary full green morocco binding. Cathedral-style spine with raised bands, decorated with gilt and blind monastic tools in panels. Green morocco title label. Covers with rich blind border featuring various friezes, stamped in blind with a central monastic tool. Tools on the edges and turn-ins. Blind-stamped leather borders. Gilt edges. Yellow checkered endpapers. Scattered foxing. At foot: R. P. Decle.
Very handsome copy in an original binding.

Second edition published the same year as the first, by the same publisher. Large folding plan of the Holy Sepulchre at rear. The large and famous atlas, published in only 325 copies and sold separately, is absent. At rear explanation of the 78 lithographed plates in colors that compose the atlas.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding with porphyry grain. Smooth spine decorated with 4 compartments with grotesque cross-hatching and a central ornament. Framing frieze on boards. Chocolate morocco title-label. Spine uniformly faded. Small lacks to joints at head. A slight lack at foot. Upper joint split narrowly at tail for 8 cm, and for 5cm along the lower joint. Trace of pale dampstain on