MIDDLE-EAST. – Robert WOOD. The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmor, in the Desart. London: printed in the Year 1753. First edition, folio (534 x 362mm.) 3 engraved plates of inscriptions by T. Gibson, 59 etched and engraved plates by Pierre Fourdrinier, J.S. Müller and T. Major after Giovanni Battista Borra. (Browning, and light spotting to text leaves, some offsetting.) Contemporary marbled calf, red morocco lettering piece to the spine (rebacked, some scuffing and abrasions to covers). Note: unusually this copy has the panorama bound as three separate plates. Between 1750 and 1751 Robert Wood, along with two wealthy Oxford scholars- James Dawkins and John Bouverie and an Italian draughtsman Giovanni Battista Borra - travelled to the Levant and made precise drawings and measurements of many buildings. This set a new standard for archaeological accuracy as well as establishing the taste for Greek architecture and decoration. ‘Tedmor’ is the Semitic name for Palmyra which was used by the local inhabitants at the time of Wood’s visit. Provenance: Philip Davies Cooke (armorial bookplate to front pastedown). [Blackmer 1843, French edition], [Fowler-Baer, 443].