74/746.f.4, 1

Imprint: Paris. Gide et J. Baudry, Librairies-éditeurs. Rue Bonaparte,5. 1856.

Large folio volume bound in red buckram (modern rebinding), measuring 630 x 480 mm and containing 83 developed-out salted paper prints (Blanquart-Évrard process), mounted one to a page (recto only) on guard-mounted card, with printed caption and photographer's and publisher's credit. The prints are prefaced by half-title, titlepage and a list of captions, the photographs being divided into two subject headings, 'Judaic monuments' and 'Judaic, Greek and Roman antiquities.' The series was originally issued in livraisons each containing 3 prints. Of the projected total of 60 parts (containing 180 photographs), only 58 issues (178 photographs) in fact appeared. Livraison wrappers for parts 1-42 are bound in at the end of the volume. The letterpress on these wrappers announces that each part was priced at 24 francs, although individual prints could also be purchased for 10 francs each. The accompanying text volume (at British Library pressmark L.2.c.9) could be purchased separately for 30 francs. The back cover of the text also announces a smaller edition of 40 photographs, 'chosen from the most beautiful and interesting of the large edition,' and published in ten parts, each containing four prints, priced at 12 francs per part. This smaller edition does not appear to have materialised. The letterpress on the print mounts follows two standard formats: the majority of the mounts in both volumes have the photographer's credit, worded 'Aug. Salzmann. Phot.' beneath the print on the left, and the printer's credit, 'Imp. photog. de Blanquart-Évrard à Lille,' on the right. A brief general caption is printed in the centre, with a fuller title added in pencil in a contemporary hand. The mounts for a much smaller number of the plates (prints 41, 42, 57, 106, 107, 140, 153, 156, 158-161, 165 and 176) have a variant text, with a fuller printed caption without pencilled additions in the centre and the photographer's credit, 'Aug. Salzmann,' above, the printer's credit, 'Imp. photog. de Blanquart-Évrard à Lille' at lower right and the publisher's credit 'Gide et J. Baudry, éditeurs,' lower left. The mounts in the latter format are also slightly smaller, and have been built up to match the larger mounts. In most cases the prints are numbered in the negative: probably all were originally numbered, although in a number of instances this cannot be distinguished owing to edge fading. This numbering also takes the form of two different sequences. In the majority of cases Salzmann uses a straight numerical sequence which, with some exceptions, follows the order of publication. In cases where the same number is used for variant studies of the same subject, the prints are distinguished by the used of 'bis' or an alphabetical suffix. The second, much smaller sequence, uses the prefix 'S.' followed by a number. In most cases the use of this second numbering system corresponds to those prints with the variant mount lettering.Writing in June 1854 in his introduction to the text volume, Salzmann describes the genesis of this massive photographic project. Having previously spent a summer in the Middle East, he had decided in September 1853 to revisit the area with the aim of studying Christian monuments. Around this time, however, Louis Caignart de Saulcy's 'Voyage autour de la mer Morte' had appeared, containing a number of controversial opinions on the Judaic monuments of Jerusalem: 'In these circumstances,' Salzmann writes, 'I modified my itinerary, believing that it would render a real service to science, in studying and especially in reproducing through photography, all the monuments of Jerusalem, particularly those whose origins were disputed.' Leaving France on 12 December 1853, Salzmann arrived in Jerusalem twenty days later, 'leaving far behind me the Greek isles, which I hope one day to revisit.' Salzmann commenced work immediately, starting with the area around the Temple Mount, noting that while the work of destruction had been extensive over time, 'despite this long devastation, remnants of the first temple are numerous. They are there, visible and and speaking out strongly to those who wish to interrogate them.' Salzmann notes that after the rains each winter, the soil subsides to reveal another part of this 'massive, badly buried skeleton,' adding that the surrounding walls also speak of the 'whole history of Jerusalem, this city seventeen times destroyed. All the conquerors have left there indisputable traces of their passage: Jews, Romans, Christians and Muslims have there inscribed datable evidence impossible to refute.' Salzmann writes that as his work advanced he became convinced that in order to contribute a serious opinion on the subject, it would be necessary to enlarge his investigations. After completing his initial work, therefore, he moved on to the burial ground, specifically the Tomb of the Kings. Faced with this monument, he writes, 'every opinion, every preconceived system collapses, leaving you in front of a completely original monument, derived from no known model.' Following this, Salzmann then turned his attention to Christian and Arabic monuments: 'After four months of unremitting toil,' he writes, 'I had made a collection of around 150 negatives. But this is not all, for my assistant Monsieur Durheim remained in the Holy City, from which fever had chased me; he continues my interrupted work and from him I will receive a further 50 or so drawings.' (Photographs of four of Durheim's copies of murals in the church at Bethlehem are included in volume II). Having become convinced of the correctness of de Saulcy's arguments, Salzmann writes that he could no longer resist entering the fray: 'the opinions that have been contradicted without evidence I come to defend, I who have actually seen them, and with my photographs to aid me, the truth must surely see the light of day.' Addressing those experts who, fearing the difficulties of travel would much prefer to settle these questions at a distance rather than accept the evidence of others, he concludes with the splendid avowal of faith in photographic evidence: 'These photographs are more than accounts, but facts endowed with a conclusive brutality.'