Les ruines de Balbec autrement dite Heliopolis dans la Coelosyrie.

One volume in large  folio, Title page, 28 pages of text, 46 engravings some of them folded showing antiques of Balbec. Half calf modern binding.

Robert Wood (1717 – 9 September 1771) was an Anglo-Irish scholar, civil servant and politician. He was the son of the Revd James Wood of Summerhill, County Meath and educated at Glasgow University (1732) and the Middle Temple (1736). Between 1750 to 1751 Wood travelled around the Levant with two wealthy young Oxford scholars, James Dawkins and John Bouverie (who died of a fever early in their expedition) along with an Italian draftsman Giovanni Battista Borra. Their primary goal was to explore the Troad and locate the key sites mentioned by Homer. An account of the library Wood assembled for his journey explores how he managed and added to his collection during his voyage. Moving south into Syria, they then took careful measurements and drawings of the ancient Roman ruins of Palmyra and Baalbek. The results of these were published in 1753 and 1757 in both English and French editions and were among the first systematic publications of ancient buildings. Both works were of great influence on neoclassical architecture in Britain, Continental Europe and America.