JOHANN EWERS: OTTON VON RICHTER WALLFAHRTEN IM MORGENLANDE AUS SEINEN TAGEBUCHERN UND BRIEFEN DARGESTELLT. BERLIN 1822 First edition, complete text volume and Atlas, text in think large 8vo, atlas in FOLIO oblong, text with modern leather over boards, Atlas plates loosed as issued in contemporary publishers wrappers, complete 715p. and 16 fine lithographed plates, the portrait plate, as often, bound in the text volume, text clean and bright, plates generally clean and fine, in the beginning one with foxing and two with light spotting mostly marginal, overall in very good condition Richter travelled widely in Greece and the Levant during 1814-1816 just before the Greek Revolution. He was a brilliant young explorer but died young at the age of 24 in Smyrna during his travels. His long diaries and notes were edited by his companion Ewers. Richter was a trained scholar with deep knowledge of oriental languages, he saw many Greek places and monuments in little visited places (like Samothraki, Limnos, Mytilini, Samos) before they were damaged during Revolution. He provides a detailed account of Chios when it was still the wealthiest and most intellectual island, a last record before the massacres of 1822. He documented the Greek thriving communities of Asia Minor, their schools and hospitals. He left in Smyrna which was the cultural heart of Greece at the time. As a master in epigraphy, he meticulously copied Greek inscriptions. Richter spent time in Cyprus in 1816 a time that the island was a neglected backwater of the Ottoman Levant. He spent significant time exploring the interior of the island and was the first one to correctly locate Amathus and Idalion. He documented several ruins around the island, he gives vivid descriptions of the life of Cypriot peasants and his accounts for Larnaca and Famagusta are vital. He was fascinated by the Cypriot dialect who could understand better than the Greek of the Aegean. The publication of the book by Ewers in 1822 served as Philhellenic propaganda, by showing a brilliant young German who gave his life while studying Greek antiquities fueled Philhellenism. The plates depict rare views in Cyprus, Samothraki, Athos, Limnos and several sites with Greek monuments in Anatolia and Syria.Very rare