Observations on the Ruins of Babylon, as Recently Visited and Described by Claudius James Rich, Esq. Resident for the East India Company at Bagdad [Baghdad]. With Illustrative Engravings. by Maurice, Rev. Thomas. (Claudius James Rich)

London, Printed for the Author, and Sold by John Murray, 1816.. Octavo. Pp. (viii), 3-239 (verso blank), (2) postscript; directions to the binder. Plus 4 folding plates by J. Barlow, one of which is etched, the other three are engraved, all protected with tissue guards. One plate is with 3 tinted impressions. With a full-page illustration to the text. Title-page illustration depicting Persepolitan characters, repeated inside. Half-title present, dedication leaf (verso blank), label to first paste-down, inscription to first free endpaper. Hardcover, bound in handsome prize binding of contemporary half calf and marbled boards, sides gilt-stamped with the armorial emblem of “The Society of Writers to the Signet”, blind tooled; spine bit worn, head chipped, extremities rubbed. Fine, crisp interior, exceptionally well preserved, excellent strikes of the plates and completely free of foxing. ~ First edition. Rich's (1787-1821) “Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon” was first published in the “Fundgruben des Orients” in 1813, event which “marks the hour when Assyriology saw the light” (Pallis 51). Thomas Maurice (1754-1824), assistant librarian to the British Museum, dedicated his commentary “to the Right Honourable Charles Philip Yorke, in grateful testimony of accumulated favours, these pages, retrospective on the history, and early progress in science, of a most ancient people”.