"WITH NO CERTAIN TRACE OF ITS PLACE OF SEPULCHRE"

BONOMI, Joseph. Nineveh and Its Palaces. The Discoveries of Botta and Layard, Applied to the Elucidation of Holy Writ. London: Ingram, Cooke & Co., 1853. Octavo, contemporary full brown morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated covers and spine, front cover with prize emblem of Colchester Grammar School, raised bands, all edges gilt. $750.

Second edition, revised, of this popular scriptural explanation of Layard's Assyrian discoveries, with 236 wood-engraved illustrations, in a lovely contemporary full morocco-gilt prize binding.

"Austen Henry Layard began his Syrian excavations in the 1840s; mistaking Nimrud… for Nineveh, he excavated there…. And discovered a huge winged bull that [remains] among the most valued treasures of the British Museum." He eventually found Nineveh and discovered "large numbers of cuneiform tablets from the state archives, from which much about Assyrian and Babylonian culture and history was eventually learned" (Britannica). Bonomi's book, besides providing detailed drawings of the discoveries at Nineveh, provides both lengthy descriptions and a scriptural gloss on the sites and objects excavated. First published in 1852. Gilt signet of Colchester Grammar School on front cover; prize inscription on front flyleaf dated 1854.

Interior clean and fine, front inner hinge expertly reinforced, a touch of rubbing to extremities. A lovely copy in near-fine condition.