| Search Antiqbook |
Ask a question or
Order this book
Browse our books
Search our books
Book dealer info
[ELGIN MARBLES]. Memorandum on the Subject of the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece. Second edition, corrected. [with]: Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Earl of Elgin's Collection of Sculptured Marbles; &c.
London, for Murray by Bulmer 1815 & 1816. 2 volumes octavo later half morocco (tips a bit scuffed); 100pp, engraved frontispiece and a couple of smaller engravings in the text by Moses; iv,154,xiv,[18]pp. Ex parliamentary library with their gilt stamp on the front covers and a couple of pretty inoffensive stamps inside. Some browning at the ends, quite good copies. The second title without appendices 6 to 11 but it is clear that they were never here. ¶ The Memorandum is a central document in Elgin's pursuit of the government to buy the Parthenon marbles. Really the third edition it would seem, written by Hamilton, Elgin's private secretary, it was first published in 1810. Judging by the BM catalogue entries, it reappeared the next year with the addition of letters from Benjamin West, notes on Phidias and a description of the bas-relief at the Musee Napoleon by Millin (Elgin used his report and valuation of that fragment as a yardstick in his petition). Now in its final form with two further appendices: the ‘Lettre .. a un Anglais' of Visconti; and the final “letter to a friend of Lord Elgin's .. by a person who paid particular attention” which is an argument for the valuation of the collection to consider all the circumstances of Elgin's costs and the consideration of profits which could have been, and could be made from the collection. Epaminondas Vranopoulis in his 1985 paper ‘The Parthenon and the Elgin Marbles' was excited to find a copy of this book in the library of the Estia of Nea Smyrni. “This rare London edition contains some very interesting information which is unknown to those who are familiar with the story of the Elgin Marbles”: that Napoleon was eager to buy the marbles; that Elgin's team looted the graves of Euripides and Aspasia, the theatre of Dionysos, the temple of Aphrodite at Daphni, and that he obtained permission from the Bishop of Athens to remove sculptures from the walls of several churches and monasteries. The report is the commercial edition. It contains the evidence of Elgin, Hamilton, Nollekins, Flaxman, Westmacott, Lawrence, and others. The marbles were finally bought for a pretty pitiful amount (35,000 pounds - five thousand more than Elgin had refused years earlier) from the destitute, noseless and wifeless Elgin. One note more: Elgin's first idea was to have the sculptures restored and he approached Canova in Rome who, to his eternal credit, declared that it would be “sacrilege in him, or any man, to presume to touch them with a chisel.”
Offered for AUD 1100.00 = appr. US$ 876.70 by: Richard Neylon, Bookseller - Book number: 6179