Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt

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The cover of the first edition's Division I
Damascus Gate, the northern entrance to Jerusalem
The Cave under the Great Rock on Mount Moriah, within the Dome of the Rock (then known as the "Mosque of Omar")
The Interior of the Dome of the Rock
Russian pilgrims buying candles
Ba'albek

Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt was a lavishly illustrated set of books published by

D. Appleton & Co. in the early 1880s based on their phenomenally successful Picturesque America and Picturesque Europe series. It was edited by Charles William Wilson, following his leadership of the seminal Ordnance Survey of Palestine and PEF Survey of Palestine
. The Appleton series was issued as "two volumes or four divisions"; it was reprinted in London by J.S. Virtue & Co., simply published as four volumes.

It was followed in 1884 by Stanley Lane-Poole's Social Life in Egypt, a kind of sequel that billed itself as "a supplement to Picturesque Palestine". It is sometimes treated as a "fifth volume" of the series,[1] but did not use Fenn or Woodward for its art.

Publication

Survey of Western Palestine, which also acted as a "cover for military mapping".[6]

Unlike the earlier Picturesque series, Picturesque Palestine did not employ numerous artists on the project but only used two of the more successful artists from the earlier books,

J.D. Woodward. Their sketches were compiled on site during Woodward and Fenn's two joint tours of Egypt and the Levant in the winters of 1877–78 and 1878–79. The two trips are documented in his correspondence with Woodward's wife and his mother. The pair received special permission to sketch inside and under the Mosque of Omar (the Dome of the Rock),[7] although Woodward compared the streets of Jerusalem with the "dirtiest alleys of Baltimore". Oppressed by the heat, glare, and barrenness, the best he could say about the shore of the Dead Sea was "I suppose it is not so bad it couldn't be worse". Nazareth was "the worst",[7] while he was most impressed by the Syrio-Roman ruins at Baalbek.[8]

The works were "enormously successful",[6] with Woodward and Fenn each earning an estimated US$10 000 a year in royalties on the Holy Land volumes.[7]

Contents

Volume I

Division I

Division I was published separately and as part of Volume I in 1881. It included an introduction by

Bethlahem's Church of the Nativity; Mar Saba Monastery; the Plains of Jericho; the view from the Tomb of Samuel; and a threshing floor.[11][12]

Division II

Division II was published separately and as part of Vol. I in 1881. It included sections on "

Caesarea Philippi; Damascus's rivers and streets; and Palmyra.[15][12]

Volume II

Division III

Division III was published separately in 1881 and as part of Volume II in 1883. It included sections on "

St George Bay; Sidon; Haifa and Mount Carmel; Caesarea; Jaffa; Hebron; and the entrance to the Valley of Petra.[18][19]

Division IV

Division IV was published separately and as part of Vol. II in 1883. It included sections on "

Philae.[22][19]

Supplements & translations

Social Life in Egypt was published in 1884 as "a supplement to Picturesque Palestine".[23] It included chapters on "The Townsfolk", "The Countryfolk", "School and Mosque", "The European Element",[24] and an epilogue which focused largely on the "disastrous results" of Egypt's "vicious training of women" as the primary stumbling block in the way of Egyptian prosperity.[25]

The series was translated into German as Palestine in Picture and Word (Palästina in Bild und Wort) with additional notes by the novelist and Egyptologist Georg Ebers[26] in 1884.[27] In 1882 and 1884, the artwork from Picturesque Palestine was also used for The Holy Land (French: La Terre Sainte), a popular 2-volume[28][29] abridgment of Victor Guérin's scholarly 7-volume Geographical, Historical, and Archaeological Description of Palestine.[30]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Khatib (2003), p. 206.
  2. ^ Moscrop (2000), p. 55.
  3. ^ a b Moscrop (2000), p. 56.
  4. ^ Moscrop (2000), p. 41.
  5. ^ a b c Moscrop (2000), p. 57.
  6. ^ a b Wharton (2006), p. 202.
  7. ^ a b c Ackerman (1994), p. 258.
  8. ^ Ackerman (1994), p. 262.
  9. ^ Pict. Pal., Div. I, pp. iii–iv.
  10. ^ Pict. Pal., Vol. I, p. i.
  11. ^ Pict. Pal., Div. I, p. v.
  12. ^ a b Pict. Pal., Vol. I, p. iii.
  13. ^ Pict. Pal., Div. II, p. iv.
  14. ^ Pict. Pal., Vol. I, p. i–ii.
  15. ^ Pict. Pal., Div. II, p. v.
  16. ^ Pict. Pal., Div. III, pp. iii–iv.
  17. ^ Pict. Pal., Vol. II, pp. iii–iv.
  18. ^ Pict. Pal., Div. III, p. v.
  19. ^ a b Pict. Pal., Vol. II, p. vi.
  20. ^ Pict. Pal., Div. IV, pp. iii–iv.
  21. ^ Pict. Pal., Vol. II, pp. iv–v.
  22. ^ Pict. Pal., Div. IV, p. v.
  23. ^ Lane-Poole (1884), p. i.
  24. ^ Lane-Poole (1884), p. iii.
  25. ^ Lane-Poole (1884), pp. 132 ff.
  26. ^ Khatib (2003), p. 176.
  27. ^ Ebers & al. (1884).
  28. ^ Guérin (1882).
  29. ^ Guérin (1884).
  30. ^ Khatib (2003), p. 180.

Bibliography

External links

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