CARNE, John
The Englishman John Carne (1789-1844) was the son of a merchant and banker. In 1820 he published anonymously a collection of his poems and in 1821 he travelled to the East, visiting Constantinople, Greece, Egypt and the Holy Land. On his way back from the monastery of Saint Catherine in Sinai, he was captured by a Bedouin tribe but was released after a few days. Carne published accounts of his travels in a series of articles in the "New Monthly Magazine", which were later published in a single volume. He frequented the literary circles of his time and published seven more multi-volume works, mainly literary texts, from 1829 until his sudden death in 1844, while planning another trip to the Mediterranean.
The present album was the fruit of Carne’s collaboration with the Fischer publishing house, and was part of a project for a series of illustrated publications on the Ottoman Empire. Here Carne’s texts accompany drawings by W.H. Bartlett, W. Purser and T. Allom, depicting monuments and locations in Syria, the Holy Land and Asia Minor. Bartlett must have travelled in the East for the first time from 1834 to 1835. In the third volume there are drawings by Allom, who most probably travelled in the region from 1836 to 1837. Like "Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor", circulated by the same publishing house, this work was reprinted and copied, and the prints are usually sold in auctions as loose leaves.
The album contains views of the Holy Land, Lebanon, Damascus, Rhodes, Syros, Alexandria, Tripolis, Aleppo in Syria, Cilicia, Antioch and other places of pilgrimage in the Eastern Mediterranean, both Christian and Muslim, as well as a map of Asia Minor and greater Syria.
Written by Ioli Vingopoulou
CARNE, John - Cyclades
CARNE, John - Rest Images
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Encampment of English travellers in Ras al-Ayn, near Baalbek.
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View of Baalbek and Mount Antilebanon. Members of the cavalry of Ibrahim Pasha.
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Frontispiece of the first volume. Pilgrims to Mecca camping near Antioch (Antakya).
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The waterfall of Berdan river (anc. Cydnus) near Tarsus of Cilicia.
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A sitting room in the residence of an affluent Muslim family in Damascus.
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Adana with Mount Taurus in the background. Soldiers of Ibrahim Pasha's army.
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The Crusader's castle near Batroun, known as Mseilha or Puy du Connètable.
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Ruins of medieval buildings at the beginning of the Knight's street in Rhodes.
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Rhodes, with the channel between the Islands and Asia Minor.
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Remains of the Port of Seleucia, near Suadeah. Mount Casius in the distance.
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Scene near a caravanserai (road side inn) on the Litani river, near Joub Jannine.
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Deir el Qamar and the palace of emir Beshir Shihab II in Beit ed-Dine.
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The Belen Pass or Syrian Gates in Nur Mountains (ancient Amanus Mountains).
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View of Antioch (Antakya) from Asat, on the route from Aleppo.
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View of Jaffa with the cemetery right outside the walls of the city.
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The village of Ehden, thought to be the location of the garden of Eden.
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Beit El Ma near Antioch (Antakya), supposed site of ancient Daphne.