Observations sur les antiquites de la ville d'Herculanum

Cochin, Charles Nicolas (1715-90) and Jérôme Charles Bellicard (1726-86). Observations sur les antiquités de la ville d'Herculaneum avec quelques reflexions sur la peinture & la sculpture des anciens . . . xxxvi, 98, [10]pp. 27 engraved plates (some printed on both sides). Paris: Ch. Ant. Jombert, 1754. 187 x 107 mm. (uncut). Quarter morocco gilt, marbled boards in antique style. Title-leaf a bit soiled, occasional minor spotting but very good.

First Edition. Cochin, an engraver, and Bellicard, an architect, visited Herculaneum circa 1750 during a tour of Italy led by Madame de Pompadour's brother, Poisson de Vandières. Their book, published in both French and English editions, helped to generate a great deal of interest in the Herculaneum ruins, particularly the theater, which was the first of the buildings at Herculaneum to be excavated. The many illustrations include a plan of the theater (showing the numerous trenches dug by Alcubierre and his workers) and images of sculptures, mosaics, utensils, household items, etc. Bellicard's plan of Herculaneum Augusteum, also known as the Basilica, was the first widely published plan from Herculaneum. Mattusch, "Introduction," in J. J. Winckelmann, Letter and Report on the Discoveries at Herculaneum, 1-61pp. Parslow, Rediscoveriung Antiquity, p. 57.