CHOISY Auguste, “LArt de bâtir chez les Byzantins”, Paris, Société anonyme de publications périodiques, 1883. Folio, pp. 187, [6] + 25 numbered full-page plates of Byzantine monuments. Complete. The French architectural historian and author Auguste Choisy visited Greece, Turkey and the Levant in 1875. He started from Salonica and travelled via Athos to Constantinople, Broussa and Kutahia and then along the coast of Asia Minor to Syria. In 1883 he published his book “L’art de bâtir chez les Byzantins”, studying the Byzantine architecture and focusing for the first time on specific architectural aspects such as details of the geometry, construction of the vaults, comparisons and further undertaking thorough interpretations. The main source was the direct study of Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki, Constantinople, Mount Athos, Hierapolis, Nicomedia, Nicaea, Pergamos, Ravenna, Jerusalem and Rome, with most of his studies conducted in Thessaloniki (Ναός Αγ. Δημητρίου, Αγ. Αποστόλων, Αγ. Παντελεήμονα, Ροτόντα, Αψίδα Γαλερίου), Constantinople & Athos (Μονή Ζωγράφου, Ξενοφώντος, Ιβήρων, Χιλανδαρίου, Βατοπεδίου). The book had an enormous impact on contemporary historians of Byzantine architecture. It was cited and praised for the new light it threw on constructive aspects, for the clarity and rigour of exposition, and for the superb plates. (Huerta S., “The Geometry and Construction of Byzantine vaults: the fundamental contribution of Auguste Choisy”, 2009) Ex-libris label “Library of John Galen Howard”, well-known San Francisco architect in the early 1900s. Contemporary half red leather. External wear: partly cracked spine, boards almost detached, rubbing along extremities and corners. Interior with occasional spotting & soilling, scuffs on few sheets. Very Rare. NOT IN BLACKMER