A Rare 1822 book on Russian Cave Paintings
Spasskii, Grigorii (Ivanovich).
"Antiquis Quibusdam Sculpturis et Inscriptionibus in Siberia Repertis"
Petropoli; Typis N. Gretschii:1822.
Grigorii Ivanovich Spasskii (d.1864) published several studies of ancient history and numismatics. This interesting treatise concerns cave paintings found in Siberia, and seems to have been his only publication to be written in Latin, not Russian. Spasskii seems to try to relate the hieroglyphs found there to those found in other parts of the world, an idea that has remained popular, even if still largely futile.
10"x8", [iv] + 6 pages of text, plus 7 engraved plates; original paper covers featuring an oak-leaf border design and a central vignette of a bow and arrows. Covers somewhat worn, chipped along the edges and thumbed at the tips, front cover with some light staining, and the upper outer corner sheared off cleanly and reattached (lightly) with archival tape; contents with some soil and a little marginal browning; a slight stain on the title page and a much smaller one on the first text page; the book was folded once vertically and has a faint crease. Although not in fine condition, this is more than made up for by the survival of the interesting original decorated paper covers.
OCLC lists one copy, at Harvard.
$750
