Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore.

This example includes proof plates of the first edition of the grandest book of engraved views of Constantinople 'one of the finest topographical illustrated books ever produced' (Koç).

Born in Karlsruhe in 1763 into a family of painters from Lorraine, Antoine Ignace Melling, studied painting and mathematics before, at the age of nineteen, travelling to the Levant as a member of the Russian Ambasador's household. In Constantinople he was fortunate to be introduced to Sultan Selim III's half-sister Hatice Sultan by the Danish ambassador Baron Hübsch. Melling worked for Hatice Sultan at her palace at Ortaköy where he designed a maze in the style of one in the garden of Baron Hübsch, and the success of this encouraged Hatice Sultan to employ Melling to create a new palace for her in the neoclassical style.

At the princess's suggestion Sultan Selim III appointed Melling as Imperial Architect, a privileged position which gave him opportunity to observe the Ottoman Court at close hand during his 18 years in Constantinople. He became more familiar with the Ottoman palaces than any Western artist since Gentile Bellini, and produced numerous detailed drawings of the architecture and Ottoman society as well as fine vedute of Constantinople. One anonymous contemporary travelogue referred to Melling as 'the unrivalled painter of the Bosphorus'.

Returning to Paris in 1803, Melling issued a prospectus for the Voyage pittoresque in 1804. Publication eventually began in 1809, and over the next ten years thirteen livraisons appeared, the last being issued in 1819. The outstanding success of the exhibitions held to showcase the original paintings on which the Voyage pittoresque was based earned Melling the title of painter to the Empress Josephine. He died in Paris in 1831.