Plate 14 is printed on two sheets. Most plates carry two or more images.
Contents
[Half-t., t.p.] - Introduction - [Text] - Table Des Gravures Et Des Planches Contenues Dans Cet Ouvrage - Notices Et Articles Publiés Sur Tébessa (Théveste) - Table Des Matières Texte [i.e. index]; [colophon] - [Plates].
Responsibility Note
Some images on the phototype plates are signed 'A. Ballu' within the print. Almost all the phototypes are signed 'Phototypie Berthaud - Paris'. The three chromolithographs (6-8) are signed 'Imp. Monrocq, A Paris'; and these carry also the imprint of the publisher, Ernest Leroux.
Several in-text illustrations are signed 'A. Ballu'.
The text printer is named on the half-title verso and in the colophon: 'Angers, Imprimerie De A. Burdin, 4, Rue Garnier'.
Summary Note
The half-title reads, 'Algérie - Le Monastère Byzantin De Tébessa'.
The work is an account of one of most impressive examples of early Christian architecture in Algeria - a complex of buildings made ca. 400 A.D. to the north of the Roman garrison-town of Thevestis (Tebessa). It consists of two avenues (one with a monumental arch at each end), a fountain-garden, lodgings or stables and a three-aisled, arcaded basilica-type church with semicircular apse and a triconch martyrium on the south side. The martyrium may have been dedicated to St Crispina (d. 304), and the complex probably served as a pilgrim centre.
Plates 1-5, 9, 10 (phototypes) show plans, elevations, sections, details and views of the basilica complex in its actual state. Plates 6-8 (chromolithographs) show mosaics. Plates 11-14 (phototypes) show plans, elevations, sections, details and views of the basilica in conjectural restoration. The in-text illustrations (photozincotypes) show views and details of the complex.
Provenance
Purchased for the RA Library in 1898 (see 'Librarian's Report', RA Annual Report for 1898, p. 40).
Binding Note
19th-century half brown morocco, brown cloth-covered boards; spine lettered 'Monastère De Tébessa - Ballu', 'R.A.' and '1897'.
Subject
Architecture, Romanesque - Mosaics, Romanesque - Pilgrimage churches - Pilgrimage centers - Churches - Basilicas - Martyria - Monasteries - Algeria - Tebessa - History - 4th century - 5th century
Art history - Plans - Elevations - Sections - Views - France - 19th century
Pictorial works - Chromolithographs - Phototypes - Photomechanical prints - France - 19th century