[PHOTOGRAPHY.] Sammelband of the printed catalogues and section-prefaces to Parker's "Historical Photographs" of the archaeology of Rome

Item Details

PARKER, John Henry (1806–1884). [Sammelband of the printed catalogues and section-prefaces to Parker's "Historical Photographs" of the archaeology of Rome.] Oxford, London & Rome: James Parker & Co., Edward Stanford, and Phelps & Co., 1867–1876. Nineteen works bound in one volume, 8vo. Some wrappers present. 

Collation / contents (in bound order ):

1. A Catalogue of a Series of Photographs Illustrative of the Archæology of Rome. Oxford: Printed by James Parker and Co., for private circulation only, 1867. viii, 47 pp. With an albumen-print portrait of the author.
2. Supplement to a Catalogue of a Series of Photographs Illustrative of the Archæology of Rome. Oxford: James Parker and Co., for private circulation only, 1868. 21 pp.
3. Historical Photographs, Rome: Recent Excavations Made in 1867 and 1868. [S.l.: s.n.], 1868. 6 pp.
4. "Roman Photographs; To the Editor of the Guardian." Offprint, 2 pp.
5. Historical Photographs: A Catalogue of Upwards of Eighteen Hundred Photographs of the Antiquities of Rome, with the Dates, Historical or Approximative, and an Index. Oxford, 1870. viii, 134 pp.
6. Historical Photographs: A Catalogue of Five Hundred and Forty-Seven Photographs of Antiquities in Rome and Italy… Part II. Oxford: James Parker & Co., 1872. (2), 43 pp.
7. Historical Photographs: A Systematic Catalogue of Mr. Parker's Collection of Photographs… Part I. Rome: Phelps and Co., 1873. (2), i–v, 3 pp.
8. "Walls and Gates of Rome | Preface." iv, 6 pp.
9. "Construction of Walls | Preface." ii, 4 pp.
10. "Preface to the Aqueducts." v, 23 pp.
11. "The Egyptian Obelisks | Preface." i, (2) pp.
12. Historical Photographs Illustrative of the Archaeology of Rome and Italy… Part 2. London: Edward Stanford, 1873. vi, 4 pp.
13. "Preface to the Catacombs." ii, 7 pp.
14. "Preface to the Castles, Palaces, &c." ii, 3 pp.
15. "Preface to Mosaic Pictures &c." iv, 18 pp.
16. "Historical Photographs Illustrative of the Art of Sculpture." 20 pp.
17. Historical Photographs. A Catalogue of Photographs of Antiquities in Rome and Italy, Prepared under the Direction of John Henry Parker. Part III. Oxford: James Parker & Co., [n.d.]. 40 pp.
18. A Catalogue of Historical Photographs of Antiquities in Rome and Italy. Part IV. London: Edward Stanford; Rome: Phelps and Co., 1876. 21, [1] pp., + printed rear wrapper.
19. Three Lectures on Ancient Rome (I. The four walls and thirty-seven gates of Rome — II. The Forum Romanum, Via Sacra, and Colosseum — III. Tombs in and near Rome, and catacombs). [S.l.: s.n.], n.d. [1877?]. 7 pp. 

Binding largely perished — boards lacking; original leather spine preserved, gilt-lettered "ROMAN PHOTOGRAPHS / PARKER / 1867–76"; marbled endpapers intact. edgewear. Original photographic (albumen) portrait frontispiece of the author, mounted on the verso of the half-title bearing the volume title "Photographs Illustrative of the Archaeology of Rome," facing the 1867 catalogue title. Half-length, seated, in Oxford academic cap and gown, the author bearded and facing slightly left; his name reproduced in facsimile autograph beneath the mount: "John Henry Parker, M.A., F.S.A." 

Provenance: Printed institutional label: "No. ___ | Traux [i.e. Truax] Classical Library. Presented by Hon. Charles Henry Traux, (Class of 1867)," with a Greek motto.

A remarkable, possibly complete, assemblage of the printed apparatus behind one of the most ambitious early campaigns to photograph the antiquities of Rome. Following retirement and a move to Italy for his health, Parker founded the British (later British and American) Archaeological Society of Rome and, from 1867, supervised the catalogue of some 3,300 historical photographs of antiquities in Rome and Italy, issued as a series. Parker did not photograph himself but commissioned Roman and foreign professionals — among them Carlo Baldassare Simelli, Francesco Sidoli, Adriano De Bonis, Filippo Spina, and Charles Smeaton — to document excavations, monuments, and architecture. The 1867 catalogue that opens this volume was printed for private circulation only, as were some of the others. The set is of particular documentary importance because in 1893 the original archive was destroyed by fire, depriving later archaeologists of an invaluable source; the printed catalogues assembled here are thus the surviving bibliographic record of a photographic corpus now largely lost, sets of prints surviving chiefly in institutional holdings (V&A; British School at Rome; American Academy in Rome). The run spans the project from the first 1867 catalogue through Part IV (1876) and includes the individually-issued section prefaces (walls and gates, aqueducts, catacombs, obelisks, mosaics, sculpture, etc.) that accompanied Parker's Archaeology of Rome.