Vue des ruines de l’Odeum à Athenes.

Julien-David Le Roy's Les Ruines des plus beaux Monuments de la Grece, first issued in 1758, was the first book to show the wonders of Greek civilization. Overnight, Greece became the rage, much to the chagrin of Giovanni Battista Piranesi and other defenders of the genius of Rome. An ‘odeum was a ‘comparatively small, often semicircular roofed theater of ancient Greece and Rome used for musical performances’. This exquisite engraving shows the ruins of an unidentified Odeum at centre, whilst the sun bursts out of a cloud behind a temple, with a rocky outcrop at left.

Good wide margins. Edges uncut. Fine condition.