The Arabian Antiquities of Spain,

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Lavish work on the Moorish architecture of Southern Spain. In contemporary full red morocco, decorative gilt tooling, corners & edges bumped & worn. Spine, raised bands, lavish gilt tooling, edges worn. Internally, engraved title page & introduction, [1], 2-21 pp, [1], 102 engraved plates (including 1 double page), lower corner of title torn away, ffep repaired, red marbled endpapers, book plate to fpd (HAM Van Son), some light spotting, first 2 text leaves with vertical crease. Title states 1813, publishers details show 1815, 3 plates are dated 1815, so possibly 1816 or a little later. Plates and text describe the mosque at Cordoba (pl 1-9) and Alhambra and the Generalife at Granada (pl 10-97). (Cicognara 2536; Graesse IV, 631; Palau 186308; RIBA 2220). (655*485 mm) Probably issued serially in 12 monthly parts between July 1815 & mid 1816. Cork-born Irish architect and antiquary James Cavanah Murphy (1760-1814) travelled to Cadiz in 1802 and spent seven years studying the Moorish style, which was serialised in 1815-16 and followed by a one-volume edition with 98 plates of the buildings, ornaments, plans, fountains, views, gardens and Arabic inscriptions of the Alhambra complex and the Mosque at Cordoba. The publishers continued publishing the work until 1820, when their partnership was dissolved and publisher H.G. Bohn acquired the plates producing an additional four (starred) plates as in the present work. "Many interesting instances of gothicised distortions of the Alhambra can be found in The Arabian Antiquities of Spain... By distorting the proportions of the halls and courts, Murphy transforms the Alhambra into a 'sublime' building - to use Edmund Burke's term. In the Court of the Lions for example, the length of the patio is greatly extended, giving the impression of a long and narrow space. This contrasts with the patio as it actually is, smaller, more compact, and somewhat square in its proportions. Furthermore, and what is peculiar to Murphy, the portico in the foreground is magnified in length and height thereby 'gothicising' its features... And it appears that Murphy deliberately distorted these proportions to make them more palatable to Gothic taste, as is made clear in the text accompanying this illustration, where we find the following: 'A beautiful portico, not unlike the portals of some Gothic churches projects into this court'." (The Burlington Magazine, volume CXXVIII, number 1001, August 1986).