LAYARD, Austen Henry (1817?1894). Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon; with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan and the Desert; Being the Result of a Second Expedition Undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum. London: John Murray, 1853. 8vo. Half?title, 2 folding maps, 14 plates (5 folding including frontispiece), and numerous woodcuts in the text (some occasional spotting to plates, small paper repair to half?title at margin). Modern half morocco, spine in 6 compartments with 5 raised bands, gilt?lettering and tooling in compartments, top edge gilt (small stain to upper corner of text block). Provenance: St. Marylebone Public Library (rubberstamp on verso of few folding plates). FIRST EDITION, of Layard?s important second British Museum archaeological expedition that identified Kouyunjik as the site of Nineveh and is considered one of the best written books of travel in the language. Abbey, Travel, 364; Atabey 687; Blackmer 969.