Knidos, Cnidus, Turkey.

Laborde, Léon Emmanuel Simon Joseph de (Marquis) View of Knidos, looking across the Carpathian Sea. "Vue de Gnide regardant la Mer Carpathienne." Paris Firmin Didot Frères 1838-[?1862]
Large panoramic tinted lithograph view of the coast and peninsular of Knidos, from Laborde's "Voyage De L'Asie Mineure". 2 plates joined.
The impressive plate shows the coast and peninsular of Knidos looking across the "Carpathian" sea to the islands of the Greek archipelago.
From the key below are identified the islands of Symie, Rhodos, Karpathos, Tilos, the Sporades, Nissaros, Astypalaia and Crete on the horizon.
The panoramic view shows many of the archeological remains of the area: in the foreground are the ruins of the Grand Theatre on Mount Tiropium, with the path to the Necropolis with many tombs; on the sea shore behind is the port of Bybassus. In the centre of the view is the peninsular of Triopium with the main harbour, with space for "vingt galères."; there are many ruins on the isthmus of temples, another theatre and the forum and then the small port. The promentory of Cape Crio is seen on the horizon. Tinted lithograph,2 plates joined, folded; generally clean; light offsetting; toning to centre join and slight crease at join; damp stain to centre lower margin just touching image; paper loss at upper centre fold; short tear to lower blank margin (20mm) repaired to verso.

Marquis Léon Emmanuel Simon Joseph de Laborde, [1807 - 1869].

Only son of Alexandre de Laborde ( 1773 - 1842 ) and Thérèse Sabatier de Cabre, Léon de Laborde was educated at the University of Göttingen . In 1827, he traveled with his father much of southern Europe and Asia Minor (Florence, Rome, Naples, Otranto, Corfu, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria), and with a remarkable talent, drew many ancient monuments' of Asia Minor and Syria, His father returned to France but he continued and explored the valley of the Nile with the engineer Linant Bellefonds while serving Mehemet Ali , and Arabia Petraea (now Jordan).
From these travels he published "Voyage de L'Arabie Pétrée" in 1830 and, "Voyage De L'Asie Mineure "in 1838. The plates of the last are after his own drawings and those of the architecht P.A.Dedreux.

Upon his return from his travel , he became secretary of the French Embassy in Rome from Chateaubriand (1828), but he resigned with him at the time of formation of the ministry Polignac (1829).
After the Revolution of 1830 , Leon de Laborde became aide-de-camp to General La Fayette before being sent as secretary of embassy in London to Talleyrand .

He soon left his diplomatic career to devote himself entirely to historical and literary works. The history of art particularly attracted his curiosity, and he began in 1839 a history of mezzotint engraving, announced as the fifth volume of a history of printing, but it was never published. The following year, he published "Research on the discovery of the printing press "(1840).
In 1845 he became keeper of Antiquities at the Louvre and later director-general of the Imperial archives.
In 1854 he published the most comprehensive study of Athens as seen through the eyes of travellers " Athènes Aux XV, XVI Et XVII Siecles."
Blackmer/Navari: 931. 355 by 1140mm (14 by 45 inches)image; page size;450-1185mm.   ref: 2383  €800