Egypt Travel Sketches from the Orient (Karl Ludwig Libay)Hardcover, 20 September 2006

This is a modern edition of a richly illustrated travelogue of Austrian painter, Karl L Libay. He visited Egypt in the 1850s and there completed a remarkable set of aquarel paintings, later transposed into lithographs. The lithographs are accompanied with a text by a prominent Austrian scholar of that time, Alfred von Kremer, later the Austrian deputy in the powers' committee governing the Egyptian state debt in the late 1870s. The lively scenes are in part corresponding to the contemporary vogue represented, amongst others, by David Roberts, but in part they have an original setting and mise-en-scéne . The text is a unique testimony to the period's vision of Egypt, her history and especially her inhabitants. Some Oriental stereotypes are mixed with genuine scholarship; the text aimed in its time at a broad audience and the intent to attract various readers makes it fascinating reading even today. The book contains colour reproductions of the complete set of lithographs as once published in 1858, and the original German and French text by Kremer, accompanied by the English, Czech and Slovak translation and commentary.