MELLING Antoine-Ignace Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore.

Blackmer; 1105 ; Atabey, 798 ; Koç Collection, 214.

Édition originale. 

Elle fut publiée en 13 livraisons entre 1809 et 1819.

Peintre et architecte d’origine allemande, Melling circula très jeune en Europe et au Moyen-Orient. Ce voyage le conduisit à Constantinople où il fut introduit auprès du sultan Selim III. Il devint alors architecte de la princesse Hadigé, soeur du sultan, qui voulait rénover et décorer son palais de Oztakeuï. Il eut ainsi la liberté de circuler dans les différents palais et dans le harem du sultan, dont il donna pour la première fois des plans et des vues intérieures. De retour à Paris, son ouvrage, le plus beau consacré à cette partie du monde, fut imprimé avec beaucoup de soin sur un papier fabriqué spécialement pour ce livre de très grand format, avec le titre en filigrane.

« Antoine-Ignace (or Anton Ignaz) Melling (1763- 1831) was born in Karlsruhe, the son of a sculptor: after his father’s death, he lived with an uncle, a painter, in Strasbourg. At the age of 19 he left for Italy and the Levant, finally arriving in Constantinople in the retinue of the Russian ambassador. He was introduced to Selim III’s sister, Hatice Sultan (1766-1821) by Baron Hübsch, for whom he had designed a garden, and quickly became intimate with the Ottoman court. (Friedrich Hübsch von Grossthal, the envoy of Denmark and Saxony, was a banker and merchant, a native of Pera and a partner in the firm of Hübsch and Timoni; he was ennobled by Emperor Joseph II in1782, the title Grossthal being a translation of Büyükdere (or large valley), where he had his summer residence.)

In 1795 Hatice chose Melling as her architect, commissioning first a labyrinth for her palace at Ortaköy, then a redesigned Interior for the building, and ultimately an entire new Neoclassical palace at Defterdarburnu. His privileged position enabled him to produce a large number of highly detailed drawings of the city’s buildings, including what is probably the only accurate interior of an imperial harem. In 1803 Melling left Constantinople for Paris and soon started making plans for the publication in instalments of the Voyage pittoresque. The first prospectus appeared in 1803-04. inviting subscribers to register with the notary Boulard and naming the printer as Pierre Didot l’aine. With the patronage of Talleyrand, then minister for foreign affairs, Melling was appointed landscape painter to the Empress Joséphine, and the fascicules which comprised the Voyage began to appear in 1809. The engravings after Melling are by Duparc, Schroeder, Née, Dupréel, Dessaulx, Marillier and others; the maps are by Barbie du Bocage after Kauffer; the splendid gilt chromo- lithograph tuÄŸra on the engraved title, copied under the aegis of one of the Ottoman court officials, is also noteworthy. The result is one of the finest topographical illustrated books ever produced » (Koç).

Exemplaire bien complet du portrait, des 3 cartes, et des 48 planches représentant des vues de Constantinople, les rives du Bosphore, de nombreux palais et leurs intérieurs, notamment celle du harem impérial.

Portrait avec ancienne restauration, première carte brunie.

Provenance : James de Rothschild (armoiries, et étiquette de la bibliothèque de Ferrière à l’intérieur de chaque volume).