BELZONI, Giavanni Battista.

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Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and Nubia; First editions, a complete set of a famous 19th-century account of Egyptian discovery. "Belzoni's efforts acquired for the British Museum many of its finest Egyptian antiquities... He was actuated by a desire to increase knowledge of ancient Egypt, and is thus a true pioneer in the field" (ODNB). The Narrative includes a contribution by his fellow adventurer, Sarah Belzoni, and several of the plates are after her drawings."Belzoni (1778-1823) moved to England in 1803 where he found work for a time as a strongman, actor and conjuror at fairs and theatres around the country. He travelled to Egypt having persuaded Mehmet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, that he could build a water-wheel superior to the traditional Egyptian machine. He built the wheel, but the Pasha rejected it and Belzoni was left destitute. John Lewis Burckhardt then employed Belzoni to remove the colossal bust of Ramesses II and transport it to England. This led to a third career for him as an Egyptologist, and he went on to excavate at Thebes, uncover four new tombs in the Valley of the Kings and discover the entrance to the second pyramid at Giza" (National Portrait Gallery).Reaching England in 1820, the Belzonis were feted by London society, and Murray rushed the Narrative into print. It went through three editions between 1820 and 1822, and Murray published a second edition of the plates in 1822

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