The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World; Or, the History, Geography, and Antiquities of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia, Collected and Illustrated from Ancient and Modern Sources. [3 Vols.]

New York: Scribner, Welford, and Co, 1871. Second Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Octavo. Three volumes. Pp. xxi, 590; vii, 580; viii, 567. 4 folding maps, and more than 600 textual illustrations. Contemporary three-quarter morocco, marbled boards and endpapers, gilt panelled spine between raised bands, t.e.g. Bindings show only minor wear, covers slightly rubbed at extremities, bookplate on pastedown, but overall a handsome set in excellent condition. Younger brother of the noted traveller and Assyriologist, Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (the decipherer of cuneiform), George Rawlinson, Camden professor of Ancient History at Oxford, took on the task of documenting the discoveries of his brother and other explorers in the field of Near Eastern archaeology. "Rawlinson summarised for his generation in scholarly form the results of research and excavation in the East, in a series of works of considerable constructive ability which have hardly yet been superseded in English." [DNB] The first of his works was "The Five Great Monarchies" (4 vols., 1862-67). This was followed by "The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy (Parthian)" (1873), to which was added "The Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy (Sassanian)" (1876). The series was supplemented by "The History of Ancient Egypt" (2 vols., 1881), and "The History of Phoenicia" (1889). Rawlinson also produced the standard translation of the "History of Herodotus" (4vols., 1858-60), with the assistance of Sir Henry Rawlinson and Sir J.G. Wilkinson.