The Description of Greece

London: Richard Priestley, 1829 The translation of the English interpreter of Platonic and Neo-Platonic philosophy, Thomas Taylor (1758-1835), first published in 1794. . Contemporary boards, worn, rebacked in modern cloth with papaer labels. Three volumes, octavo. Crude repairs to first two leaves of Volume I, with tape stains on title-page. A little light foxing and offsetting. Otherwise a good, clean copy. This famous work by the Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias (143-176 A.D.) still remains an excellent source of information on topography, local history, religious customs, architecture and sculpture, primarily on the Peloponnesus and in parts of Northern Greece. Frazer opined that without Pausaniass work the ruins of Greece would be for the most part a labyrinth without a clue, a riddle without an answer and that this book will be studied so long as ancient Greece shall continue to engage the attention and awaken the interest of mankind. The maps, one of Ancient Greece and one of the world, are after the French cartographer Jean-Baptiste DAnville; the plates are after James Stuart, the Athenian. Taylor received sixty pounds from the booksellers for this work, the only one of his books for which he received payment. Under intense pressure, he produced the translation in ten months, damaging his health.