119. Stuart, James, and Nicholas Revett.
Vol. I. THE ANTIQVITIES OF / ATHENS. / MEASURED AND
DELINEATED / BY JAMES STVART F.R.S. AND F.S.A. / AND
NICHOLAS REVETT. / PAINTERS AND ARCHITECTS. / VOLVME
THE FIRST / LONDON / PRINTED BY JOHN HABERKORN,
MDCCLXII.
Folio. Engraved portrait (1 leaf); title page (1 leaf); dedication (1
leaf); list of subscribers (3 leaves); engraved, folding map; preface
([i]-viii); engraved, folding plate; description of preceding plate (ix-x);
text, with 70 engraved plates, of which 1 is folding, inserted ([1]-52);
errata (1 leaf).
Vol. II. THE ANTIQVITIES OF / ATHENS / . . . / VOLVME
THE SECOND / . . . / PRINTED BY JOHN NICHOLS. /
MDCCLXXXVII.
Folio. Title page (1 leaf); note to reader (i); introduction (iii-iv); half
title (1 unnumbered p.); advertisement (1 unnumbered p.); folding, engraved
plate; [new pagination:] explanation of preceding plate (iii-iv);
double, engraved plan; explanation of plan (v-vii); text, with 72 engraved
plates of which 1 is folding, inserted (1-46).
Vol. III. THE ANTIQVITIES OF / ATHENS / . . . / VOLVME
THE THIRD. / . . . / PRINTED BY JOHN NICHOLS,
MDCCXCIV.
Folio. Title page ([i]); preface (iii-xviii); 2 engraved plates, of which
1 is folding; [new pagination:] description of plates ([i]-vi); folding, engraved
plate; list of ancient place names (vii-xxv); text, with 72 engraved
plates, of which 1 is folding and 1 is double, inserted (1-64);
errata (1 leaf).
Vol. IV. THE ANTIQVITIES OF / ATHENS / . . . / VOLVME
THE FOVRTH. / LONDON: / PRINTED BY T. BENSLEY, FOR
J. TAYLOR, HIGH-HOLBORN, MDCCCXVI.
Folio. Engraved portrait (1 leaf); title page (1 leaf); preface ([i]-xvii);
notes (xviii-xx); memoirs of Stuart and Revett (xxi-xxxi); text, with 87
engraved plates inserted ([1]-36); errata (37-42); index (43-44).
Vol. V. [Outside this study.]
The engravers for Vol. I were James Basire (see No. 3); I. or J. Cole
(fl.1750), English; Pierre Fourdrinier (see No. 21); James Green
(1755-ca.1800), English; Charles Grignion (see No. 23); Charles
Knight (1743-1826), who worked in London; Conrad Martin Metz
(1749-1827), who was born in Bonn, studied with Bartolozzi (see No.
3) in London, and went to Rome in 1802; W. Palmer (fl.1750), English;
Edward Rooker (see No. 3); Sir Robert Strange (1721-92), who
studied in Edinburgh and in Paris with Le Bas, and who later went to
Italy and became a member of the academies of Rome, Florence, Bologna,
Parma, and Paris; and A. Walker (see No. 3).
The engravers for Vol. II were François-Germain Aliament (173490),
who had studied with his brother Jacques and had set up a school
in London; Daniel Lerpinière (1745-85), of French descent but born in
London; James Newton (1748-ca.1804), pupil of his father Edward;
William Sharp (1749-1824), who worked in London; and Samuel Smith
(1745-1808), who also worked in London.
The engravers for Vol. III were Lerpinière; Newton; William Blake
(1757-1827), who studied with James Basire (see No. 3), Ryland, and
at the Academy of Paris in London and who later became known for his
beautiful, mystical books; John Hall (1739-97), who was engraver to
George III; John Harding (fl.1790), English; John Landseer (17691852),
who worked in London and was the father of the more famous
Edwin; Wilson Lowry (see No. 32); Thomas Medland; John Record
(see No. 114a); William Skelton (1763-1848), pupil of James Basire
and William Sharp; and John Walker (fl.1794), a nephew of Anthony
Walker (see No. 3).
The engravers for Vol. IV were Lerpiniere; Record; Thomas Baxter
(1782-1821), English; James Davis; Peter Mazell (see No. 63);
Henry Moses (see No. 47); Henry Taylor; James Taylor (1745-97),
London; and Edmond Turrell (fl.1815-20), London.
The subscribers' list in Vol. I contains the names of three builders,
two carpenters, eleven doctors, twenty-three ecclesiastics, one joiner, two
lawyers, ten painters, one plasterer, and three sculptors. The architects
listed are John Adam, Robert Adam, James Adam, Lancelot Brown,
Henry Flitcroft, David Hiorne, James Payne, William Robinson, John
Smeaton, and Vanvitelli. James Basiere, the engraver; David Garrick,
the actor; and Uvedale Price, the writer on taste, were also subscribers.
James Stuart (1713-88) was born in London, the son of a mariner
who died early, leaving his son to support the family by painting fans for
Louis Goupy, many with classical scenes. Stuart was given a premium
at age thirteen or fourteen at the Society of Arts for a self-portrait. He
went to Rome in 1741 where he met Revett. They went on to Athens in
1750-51 and returned to England in 1755. Stuart was F.R.S. and F.S.A.,
as well as a member of the Society of Dilettanti.
Nicholas Revett (1720-1804) was born in Suffolk. He was in Rome
by 1742, studying painting. After the publication of the first volume of
the Antiquities of Athens, he quarreled with Stuart, sold his rights to
the publication to Stuart, and had no connection with succeeding volumes.
He went to Asia Minor in 1764-66 and later published The Antiquities
of Iona, Vol. I, 1769, and Vol. II, 1797.
Stuart tells why and how he and Revett went to Athens and how
they divided their labors on the book:
The ruined Edifices of Rome have for many years engaged the attention
of those, who apply themselves to the study of Architecture. . . . Many
representations of them . . . have been published. . . .
But altho' the World is enriched with Collections of this sort already
published, we thought it would be a Work not unacceptable to the lovers of
Architecture, if we added to those Collections, some Examples drawn from
the Antiquities of Greece. [I, (i)]
We were then at Rome, where we had already employed 6 or 7 years in
the study of Painting, and there it was that towards the end of the year 1748,
I first drew up a brief account, of our motives for undertaking this Work, of
the form we proposed to give it, and of the subjects of which we then hoped
to compose it. [I, v]
We did not set out from Rome till the month of March 1750. . . . On
the 19 January, 1751, we embarked on board an English Ship [from Venice].
. . . We arrived safely on March 11, N.S. at Corinth . . . and on the 17 at
night anchored in the Pireus. [I, vi-vii]
The Architectural Prints compose, I imagine, the most useful and interesting
part of this Work; and at the same time, that, which I apprehend is
least liable to censure: for our joint endeavours were here diligently employed,
and my Friend Mr. Revett wholly confined his attention to this part. [I, vii]
The Antiquities of Athens must have one of the longest publishing
histories on record, with its first planning in 1748, its first volume appearing
in 1762, and its fifth, and last (though it was earlier thought
the fourth would be the last), not being issued until 1830. There was a
second edition of Vols. I-III between 1825 and 1830 and a third edition
of these three volumes in 1841. The editor of Vol. IV says:
It has been the singular fate of this work that only the first volume was published
by the author, and that each succeeding one has been ushered into the
world by a different editor. The first appeared in 1762; the second bears 1787
on the title page, but was not published till after Stuart's death, which happened
in February, 1788, when the arrangements were completed by Mr.
Newton; and in 1794, Mr. Revely appears as the editor of the third. After a
further interval of twenty years, the papers put into my hands by Mr. Taylor,
enable me to offer to the public the fourth and last volume. [IV, (i)]
The appearance of Vol. I caused what was called "Grecian gusto"
to reign supreme. In spite of Le Roy (No. 73), who did not visit Athens
until 1754 after Stuart and Revett had finished there, but who published
Les ruines in 1758, and in spite of Dalton's inaccurate views of Athens
of 1749, Stuart and Revett "may fairly claim to have been pioneers of
classical archaeology" and their work to have been "the commencement of
the serious study of Classical art and antiquities" (DNB). Nor can one
underestimate the importance of their plates detailing the various buildings
discussed (see Plates CXXXI and CXXXII), especially those dealing
with the columns of the Parthenon and Theseum (see Plate
CXXXIII; compare with Plate XCI), for they seem to have been the
direct ancestors of the books treating of the Greek orders of many later
authors, both in England and the United States.
Jefferson owned only the first volume of this work, which Kimball
(p. 100) says came into his collections between 1785 and 1789, but he
does not seem to have been much influenced by it. He later sold it to
Congress.
Jefferson ordered the first four volumes, all that had been published
before his death, for the University in the section on "Architecture" of
the want list. There is no record, however, that the library acquired a
set before 1828. The library's present set of all 5 volumes was the gift
of G. Harris.
U. Va.
*NA280.S9.1762
M
Sowerby 4190
