BOOKS, PRINTS, AND TRAVEL: READING IN THE GAPS OF THE ORIENTALIST ARCHIVE.

From about 1780 a thriving publishing industry for travel accounts developed in France, but its rich visual component has not been closely analysed. Taking Auguste de Forbin's Voyage dans le Levant and Marie-Gabriel de Choiseul-Gouffier's Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce as paradigmatic examples, I reconsider illustrated travel books in light of new theories of reading generated by historians of the book. The multifarious nature of these books – juggling word and image, and coordinating the work of a large number of writers, researchers, artists and print-makers – provides a radically alternative model for interpreting travel representation in the age of expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]