Lettre sur l'inscription bilingue de Thougga

A rare original edition, printed in a limited number of copies, of this extract from the Journal asiatique.

The work is illustrated with two folding plates at the end of the volume.

Contemporary half havana calf binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, rubbed joints, library classification label pasted at the head of the spine, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers, speckled edges.

The Libyco-Punic monument of Dougga (Tunisia), also known as the Mausoleum of Atban, is one of the few well-preserved examples of Punic architecture still extant. It bore a bilingual inscription (Libyco / Punic) which was clumsily removed from the monument in 1842 by the British consul in Tunis, Thomas Reade, and is now held at the British Museum.

Its study made it possible, for the first time, to decipher Libyco-Berber characters.

Provenance: Copy from the library of the renowned archaeologist Honoré-Théodoric, eighth Duke of Luynes (1803-1867), with his Dampierre château bookplate pasted on a pastedown.