Mount Sinai Monastery from the Second Viewpoint, Antique Print, 1776

This is an original antique copper engraving from 1776, plate XLVIII of the first volume of Carsten Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie. The caption reads Gezigt van 't Klooster aan den Berg Sinaï van de plaats B. op de Plaat XLIV. in Dutch and Vûe du Monastere à la Montagne de Sinaï du point B. Marque sur la Planche XLIV. in French: a view of the monastery at Mount Sinai from point B marked on plate XLIV.

The plate is printed across the width of the sheet. It looks up a long valley between two steep mountain walls, the dark slope at the left and the pale, broken cliffs at the right drawn in dense hatching. Far up the valley, in the center of the picture, stands the monastery, a long walled building with trees in front of it and a fence, two tall slender trees beside it, and a rounded peak rising behind. Palm trees grow at the foot of the cliffs on the right. On the valley floor a lone figure works at the left of the track, and in the center foreground a man leads a laden camel toward the right.

The lower right corner below the image is lettered C. Philips, Jz: fec:, naming the engraver, and the plate number Tab: XLVIII. is engraved vertically in the right margin. Point B, from which the view is taken, is marked on plate XLIV, the plan of the monastery's setting.

The plate belongs to the first volume of Niebuhr's Voyage en Arabie & en d'autres Pays circonvoisins, marked TOME PREMIER and Traduit de l'Allemand on its title page, which carries the imprint of S. J. Baalde at Amsterdam and J. van Schoonhoven and Comp. at Utrecht and the date MDCCLXXVI. The account was first published in German at Copenhagen; this is the French translation printed in Amsterdam and Utrecht. Carsten Niebuhr (1733 to 1815) was a German born surveyor in Danish service and the only member of the Danish expedition to Arabia (1761 to 1767), sent by King Frederick V of Denmark, to return alive.

Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners are present. Several larger brown marks.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.