Nineveh and Its Palaces: the discoveries of Botta and Layard, applied to the elucidation of the Holy Writ

London : Ingram, Cooke, 1853

The discoveries of Botta and Layard, applied to the elucidation of Holy Writ. Second Edition, revised. Demy 8vo (22cm); xx, (2), (430) pp; Engraved frontispiece plus seven further plates, one map, and 273 illusts in the text. Full calf binding with ornate gilt decorations to the panelled spine, black morocco title label; marbled endpapers and page edges; endpapers and titlepage slightly spotted. A really fresh and bright copy in handsome calf binding. Artist and Egyptologist Joseph Bonomi the Younger examines the work of the two main early excavators of the palaces. Paul-Émile Botta and Austen Henry Layard. His work offers a broader survey of recent Mesopotamian and Iranian discoveries, including other sites such as Babylon, Persepolis, and the inscriptions of the Achaemenid Persian king Darius I (r. 522–486 BCE) at Bisitun. The book’s title highlights the particular interest of much of the Victorian public: the biblical significance of Botta, Layard, and others uncovering the palaces of Nineveh, previously known only through the Bible and Classical sources, and the reliefs and inscriptions of kings such as the biblical Sennacherib.