First and only edition, the author's personal copy, with James Fergusson's extensive manuscript annotations, an autograph letter signed to Fergusson from controversial and pioneering archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, and two highly significant original diagrams by Schliemann's assistant Wilhelm Dörpfeld. There are also several mounted engravings and photographic prints, these last reflecting Fergusson's early advocacy of photography in documenting archaeological findings. This copy brings together three of the most important figures in the rediscovery of Greek antiquities in the nineteenth century. James Fergusson (1808-1886) established himself with his work on Indian architecture, and became one of Victorian Britain's leading architectural historians, much admired by Ruskin. He and Schliemann (1822-1890), "often considered to be the discoverer of prehistoric Greece" (Ency. Brit.), were both amateur enthusiasts who funded their investigations through commercial fortunes. Wilhelm Dörpfeld (1853-1940), a trained architect, joined Schliemann at Troy in 1882, and subsequently assisted him at Tiryns from 1884 to 1885 and on later projects, his expertise proving an important check on his employer's often destructive methods and extravagant conclusions. In this late work Fergusson pays tribute to Schliemann's findings at Mycenae and Orchomenos, which he says showed that "the [so-called] Pelasgic form of arts and those of the Hellenes who succeeded them ... belong to the same age" (p. 54). Fergusson had in turn helped Schliemann in his excavations of Troy, Mycenae, and Tiryns, and in the dedication to Tiryns (1885) Schliemann described his colleague as "eminent alike for his knowledge of art and for the original genius which he has applied to the solution of some of its most difficult problems" (ODNB): John Murray had expressed reservations about the cost of printing, so Schliemann "sent a sketch of the palace plan to ... James Fergusson, a friend and adviser of John Murray, who from the beginning had responded enthusiastically to the news of the discovery ... He was influential in convincing Murray to take the book on the usual terms" (Traill, Schliemann of Troy, p. 239). On page 63 Fergusson prints a diagram of roof construction from an inscription regarding the Athenian naval arsenal at Philon, found at Piraeus by Dörpfeld. Dörpfeld's original ink diagram, sent to Fergusson by Schliemann while The Parthenon was in the press, is annotated with mathematical formulae absent from the printed reproduction. Fergusson describes the significance of the discovery, which "accounts for the the interval between the mutules of the Parthenon which was otherwise inexplicable", and shows also that a layer of clay would have been applied between the roof planks and tiles, which explains the thickness of the upper member of the Parthenon cornice. Dörpfeld's exacavations at Piraeus notably remain the sole proof for the size of Athenian triremes. On page 89 Fergusson discusses the conversion of the Theseion at Athens into a church as demonstrated by a sketch by Dörpfeld, the original mounted opposite, and shows how early Christians cut away "the three upper courses of the walls ... to allow of a vault being thrown across the nave, in place of the wooden roof that originally existed", and thus obliterated evidence for how light was originally introduced. Schliemann's letter dated Athens, 25 January 1883, thanks Fergusson for sending two drawings of the Temple of Eleusis, probably the originals of the wood-engravings in Fergusson's printed text, demonstrating that Eleusis was copied from an Egyptian design. Schliemann writes that he has forwarded them to Dörpfeld in Berlin, "who cannot find words to express his amazement at your ingenuity to make sketches of things unseen and to hit exactly the right theory. He is going to publish his lectures on the Scenotheke of Philon in the Annals of the German School here and promises you a copy of it". Schliemann also politely turns down Fergusson's invitation to Dörpfeld to visit England, owing to his approaching marriage (he married Anne Adler, daughter of his professor, in February). On the day he wrote the letter Schliemann held a grand ball at Iliou Melathron, his Athens mansion, three days before setting off to survey Thermopylae (see Traill, p. 227). Fergusson's lengthy annotations to two interleaves seem to be draft paragraphs for an intended second edition. To the leaf facing pages 104-5, which discuss inter alia Francis Penrose's elucidation of the Parthenon's ratios, he adds that "it provided in its pediments - in triglyphs and in friezes - sculptures which were suddenly developed from archaic forms to read a degree of perfection that was never approached before & have never been equalled since" and cites evidence that its cella was "evidently originally adorned with painting". On the leaf facing page 109 Fergusson describes how the Parthenon evinces the pagan emphasis on exterior over interior elaboration, the opposite of Christian architecture. On pages 49-50 he has scored about several paragraphs and individual, evidently in revision of the theory that the Parthenon was originally a laconicum for the Baths of Agrippa, while on page 98 he he has added a scale to two diagrams of Karnak (which form part of his evidence for his theory regarding Eleusis, above). Fergusson has additionally grangerised this copy with a proof pull of the wood-engraving of the pillar of Ephesus (facing p. 35), photographic prints of the Temple of Heliopolis (p. 42) and the Temple of Nepture at Paestum (p. 82), and a lithographed speculative view of the Parthenon cella (terminal blank).
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