Lot 104: NORDEN, Frederik Ludvig (1708-42). Travels in Egypt and Nubia. London: Lockyer Davis and

NORDEN, Frederik Ludvig (1708-42). Travels in Egypt and Nubia. London: Lockyer Davis and Charles Reymers, 1757. 2 volumes in one, 2° (474 x 290mm). 2 engraved frontispieces (including one portrait), 162 plates, maps and plans, engraved initials, head- and tail-pieces (lacking half titles, first frontispiece lightly browned, light offsetting onto both titles, a few pages heavily spotted, else only some light spotting, occasional thumb-soiling). Contemporary diced calf gilt, arms of Botfield on sides, spine titled in gilt and ruled gilt in compartments, inner dentelles (head and tail of spine chipped, quite rubbed), gilt edges. Provenance: Beriah Botfield (1807-1863, by descent to his wife:) -- Isabella Botfield (d.1911; by bequest to:) -- Lord Alexander Thynne (1873-1918), Longleat (penciled shelfmark).

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, THE BOTFIELD COPY, an octavo version without plates appeared the same year, as well as an abridged version 'compendium' published in Dublin. Norden made a voyage through Egypt all the way down to Sudan in 1737-1738 on the request of King Christian VI of Denmark. He "was the first European to penetrate as far as Derr in Nubia and to publish descriptions of any Nubian temples. This important work was the earliest attempt at an elaborate description of Egypt, and its plates are the most significant previous to those by Denon" (Blackmer). Blackmer 1211.