aleksandr dmitriev mamonov (4 Ergebnisse)

Zustand: New. In.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware.

Zustand: New.

First edition of this extremely popular regional guide which ran to ten editions by 1916. Surprisingly uncommon, particularly when complete with the superb folding map and the portrait of the Tsar, WorldCat locates just six copies of this first and a scatter of later editions. This official guide was commissioned by the Military Ministry and the Ministry of Railways and compiled by Dmitriev-Mamonov, who also prepared the better known, and more frequently encountered, guide of the Trans-Siberian railway. The book contains a comprehensive survey of the history of the region, detailed advice for the European traveller, together with, inevitably, the railway schedules. The monuments of Bukhara and Samarqand are described at length, with the section on Samarqand covering sights such as the observatory of Ulugh Beg, the mausoleum known as Gur-i Mir, and the ruins of Afrasiyab. Colourful stories about the death of Cyrus and the life of Alexander the Great are balanced against detailed discussions of the economy and ethnography of the region, with many images documenting the customs and practices of groups such as the Turkmen, the Uzbeks and the Kyrgyz. Also included are numerous portraits of the Russian generals who annexed Central Asia, and of the engineers who built the railway and its infrastructure. Provenance: p. III has the stamp of the Library of the General Staff Building in St. Petersburg, and 'Bib. Gl. Stab.' (Library of the General Staff Building') appears in gilt lettering on the spine. In 1918, more than 90,000 books were taken from this library to form the basis of the collections of the Federal General Staff library in Moscow. Octavo (240 x 165 mm). Photogravure portrait frontispiece of the Tsar, large folding coloured map at the rear, numerous illustrations from photographs to the text. Contemporary skiver-backed marbled boards with cloth tips, title gilt directly to the spine, front endpapers renewed. Skilful external restoration, front joint neatly repaired, corners consolidated, head- and tail-caps stiffened, some splits on the folds of the map, pre-Revolutionary institutional stamps just once to the text at the introduction, and to the margin of the map, marginal pale toning to the text-block, overall very good.