2.1 Pieter Bruegel, Tower of Babel, 1563. Oil on panel, 114 × 155 cm. Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, GG 1026. Image: public domain (Wikimedia Commons – Google Art Project) 16
2.2 Conraet Decker after artist accompanying Pietro della Valle, Two views of the ruin of the Tower of Babel, 1679. Engraving in Athanasius Kircher’s Turris Babel, 2 images, each 19 × 28 cm. Image: public domain (NYPL Digital) 22
2.3 Conraet Decker after Lievin Cruyl. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 1679. Engraving in Athanasius Kircher’s Turris Babel, 37 × 46 cm. Image: public domain (NYPL Digital) 25
2.4 Conraet Decker. View of Babylon, 1679. Engraving in Athanasius Kircher’s Turris Babel, 37 × 51 cm. Image: public domain (NYPL Digital) 25
2.5 Conraet Decker, Demonstration of the impossibility of building a tower to the moon, 1679. Engraving in Athanasius Kircher’s Turris Babel, ca. 20 × 30 cm. Image: Public domain (NYPL Digital) 26
2.6 Philips Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck. Walls of Babylon, 1572. Engraving in series of The Seven Wonders of the World and the Coliseum, 21.2 × 26.7 cm. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, NGA 156113. Image: public domain (Wikimedia Commons – National Gallery of Art) 30
2.7 J.A. Delsenbach after Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, View of Babylon, 1721–23. Engraving in Fischer von Erlach’s Entwurff einer historischen Architektur, 42 × 52.5 cm. Image: AF Fotografie/Alamy Stock Photo 31
2.8 Aubin-Louis Millin, The Caillou Michaux, engraving in Millin, Monumens antiques inédits ou nouvellement expliqués, vol. 1, pl. 9. Source: public domain (Hathi Trust/Getty) 34
2.9 Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), Semiramis Receiving Word of the Revolt in Babylon, 1624. Oil on canvas, 130 × 152 cm. Private collection. Image: public domain (Wikimedia Commons) 38
2.10 Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Belshazzar’s Feast, ca. 1636–38. Oil on canvas, 167.6 × 209.2 cm. London, National Gallery, NG6350. Image: public domain (Wikimedia Commons) 40
2.11 Plan of the ruins of Babylon, 1815. Frontispiece to Claudius Rich, Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon. Source: public domain (author’s scan) 45
2.12 William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar, ca. 1795/ca. 1805. Color monotype in tempera, finished with pen, black ink and watercolor on paper, 43 × 60.3 cm. Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Miscellaneous Works of Art Purchase Fund, 1957, P.12,581. Image: public domain (Wikimedia Commons – Google Art Project) 49
3.1 Niccolò Guidalotto, Panorama. Private Collection, Canada. Image courtesy of the Phoenix Art Museum and Airi Katsuta 57
3.2 Niccolò Guidalotto, Manuscript, Opening Page. Vatican Biblioteca Apostolica 58
3.3 Memorie Turchesche, Interrogation. Museo Civico Correr, Venice 59
3.4 Memorie Turchesche, Procession. Museo Civico Correr, Venice 60
3.5 Memorie Turchesche. The Venetian Embassy. Museo Civico Correr, Venice 61
3.6 Niccolò Guidalotto, Panorama, Eagle Gripping Hydra. Private Collection, Canada. Image courtesy of the Phoenix Art Museum and Airi Katsuta 64
3.7 Niccolò Guidalotto, Panorama, The Pope. Private Collection, Canada. Image courtesy of the Phoenix Art Museum and Airi Katsuta 67
3.8 Niccolò Guidalotto, Panorama, The Emperor. Private Collection, Canada. Image courtesy of the Phoenix Art Museum and Airi Katsuta 68
3.9 Niccolò Guidalotto, Panorama, Angles. Private Collection, Canada. Image courtesy of the Phoenix Art Museum and Airi Katsuta 69
4.1 Sleeping Ariadne (Belvedere Cleopatra), Roman copy of 2nd century BCE original, marble, cat. 548, Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums. Photo credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY 80
4.2 Group with Ptolemy II (Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Arsinoe II Philadelphus, and royal woman), c. 3rd century BCE, granite, cat. 22682, cat. 22681, and cat. 22683, Museo Gregoriano Egizio, Vatican Museums. Photo credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY 81
4.3 Statue of Queen Tuya, Dynasty XVIII–Dynasty XIX (c. 1550–1189 BCE), granite, cat. 22678, Museo Gregorian Egizio, Vatican Museums. Photo credit: Scala / Art Resource, NY 82
4.4 Plate CVII from Montfaucon Bernard de, L’Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures, Seconde partie du tome second: La religion des Egyptiens, les Abraxas; La Religions des Arabes, des Syriens, des Perses, des Scythes, des Germains, des Gaulois, des Espagnols & des Carthaginois (Paris: Delaulne, 1719) 96
5.1 Johann Adam Delsenbach (engraver) and Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Ruins of Palmyra, ancient Republic in Syria, built by Solomon. From: Entwurff einer historischen Architektur, vol. 2 (Vienna, 1721), fol. XIII r. Private Collection 104
5.2 Giovanni Battista Borra (draughtsman) and Robert Wood, Trabeation of the Temple of Palmyra. From: The ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmor, in the desert (London, Robert Wood: 1753) fol. XXXVIII r. Private Collection 109
5.3 Jean-Jacques Lequeu, Various sketches of the Temple of the Sun in Palmyra. Black ink on paper, 53.1 × 33.6 cm. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 110
5.4 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Egyptian decoration of the Caffè degli Inglesi. Etching, 23.7 × 32 cm. From: Diverse Maniere d’adornare i cammini ed ogni altra parte degli edifizi desunte dall’architettura Egizia, Etrusca, e Greca con un Ragionamento Apologetico in defesa dell’Architettura Egizia, e Toscana (Rome, Generoso Salomon: 1769) plate 45 113
5.5 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Egyptian decoration of the Caffè degli Inglesi. Etching, 39 × 25.2 cm. From: Diverse Maniere d’adornare i cammini ed ogni altra parte degli edifizi desunte dall’architettura Egizia, Etrusca, e Greca con un Ragionamento Apologetico in defesa dell’Architettura Egizia, e Toscana (Rome, Generoso Salomon: 1769) plate 5. © The MET (The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1973) 115
5.6 Giovanni Battista Piranesi, View of the Pyramid of Cajo Cestio, located on the ancient Via Ostiense, today called S. Paolo. Etching with burin, 40.4 × 61 cm. From: Le Antichità Romane (Paris, Firmin Didot: 1750–56). Private Collection 116
5.7 Étienne-Louis Boullée, Cenotaph in the Egyptian style. Black ink, grey-brown and black wash, 111 × 45 cm. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 122
5.8 Étienne-Louis Boullée, Plan of a pyramidal cenotaph. Black and pink ink, 20 × 20 cm. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 124
5.9 Étienne-Louis Boullée, Section of the cenotaph. Black ink, brown-grey wash, 65 × 43 cm. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 125
5.10 Louis-Sylvestre Gasse, Plan of the Elysée or cemetery. Grey and red wash and Indian ink on paper, 46.5 × 47.5 cm, 1799. Image © École nationale supérieure de Beaux-arts de Paris (Ensba) 128
5.11 Louis-Sylvestre Gasse, Section of the pyramid. Grey and red wash and Indian ink on paper, 46.5 × 68.5 cm, 1799. Image © École nationale supérieure de Beaux-arts de Paris (Ensba) 129
5.12 Jean-Jacques Lequeu, Plan of the ground floor of a belveder [sic], called the Temple of Nature, that Mr. Q … lawyer at the Grand Council, wants to build in Romainville, 1787–89. Pen, wash and watercolour, 46.2 × 57 cm. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 132
5.13 Jean-Jacques Lequeu, Orthography, side of the entrance of a country house called the Temple of Silence, 1788. Pen, wash and watercolour, 50.4 × 37.6 cm. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 133
5.14 Jean-Jacques Lequeu, Perpendicular section of a basement of the Gothic house. Pen, wash and watercolour, 51.7 × 36.4 cm. From: Architecture Civile, fig. 164–165, fol. 47. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 138
5.15 Jean-Jacques Lequeu, House of Pluto and the Temple of Wisdom. Pen, wash and watercolour, 51.5 × 34.8 cm. From: Architecture Civile, fig. 156, fol. 61. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 139
5.16 Jean-Jacques Lequeu, Temple of divination, which forms the northern part of the Elyseum. Pen, wash and watercolour, 51.7 × 36.4 cm. From: Architecture Civile, fig. 158*, fol. 63. Image © Bibliothèque nationale de France 141
10.1 Les Métamorphoses de Melpomène et de Thalie ou Caractères dramatiques des comédies françaises et italienne (Paris: 17**) Plate 15. Features costume designs for Lekain as Ninias and Dumesnil as Semiramis in Voltaire’s Sémiramis IV.4. Image courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France 266
12.1 Frontispiece to Johannes Kepler, Tabulae Rudolphinae, 1627. Line engraving. Providence, The Lownes History of Science Collection, Brown University Library. Image © Brown University Library 311
12.2 George Vertue after Thomas Gibson, portrait of John Flamsteed, 1721. Line engraving. London, Welcome Collection. Image Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) 317
12.3 James Basire after J.C. Barnes, portrait of George Costard, 1805. Line engraving. London, Welcome Collection. Image Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) 324
13.1 Number of titles in the dataset, by decade 349
13.2 Number of professors of oriental languages in the dataset, in Germany (light gray) and overall (dark grey) 356