Le Prince Pucler Muskau: Entre l Europe et l Asie,Voyage dans l Archipel.Paris 1840 First edition,in 8vo,complete in two volumes,contemporary leather over boards,spines richly gilt,text clean and bright,manuscript pencil ownership inscription in front past dawns of both volumes by William St Clair,leading British Hellenist,a fine provenance,overall in very good condition. The legendary Prussian eccentric, landscape architect, and travel writer Prince Pucler Muskau travelled in Greece and the Levant in 1835-36 published a monumental account of his journey through the East. This is the first edition,in French,the lingua franca of his time,a further account, in German, has been published later. Pucler-Muskau was one of the famous celebrities of Europe, he set out for the Orient to escape his debts and find new inspiration for his landscape gardens,like the famous Muskau Park.He spent three months in Athens in 1836. He describes the glamorous court balls, the mixed international society of the new capital, and his interactions with the Bavarian regents. He traveled extensively through the Greek islands and the Peloponnese. He was one of the few Westerners to summit Mount Taygetos and visit the source of the River Styx. He met the aging heroes of the Revolution, including Kanaris and the Mavromichalis family in the Mani. He recorded their stories of the war with a romantic, yet critical eye. Throughout the book, he views the Greek landscape through the lens of an architect. He famously expressed indignation at the relocation of the people of Mistra to the newly built classical town of Sparta, arguing that it destroyed the organic beauty of the landscape.A very valuable detailed account on the newly independent Greece of the 1830s