xii INTRODUCTION. 



It is true, Mr Chalgrin, a young French ftudentin archil* 

 tecture, accepted thepropofal, andfentaneat fpecimen of rec- 

 tilineal architecture. Even this gentleman might have 

 been of fome ufe, but his heart failed him ; he would have 

 wifhed the credit of the undertaking, without the fatigues 

 of the journey. At lad Mr Lumifden, by accident, heard of a 

 young man who was then ftudying architecture at Rome, a 

 native of Bologna, whofe name was Luigi Balugani. I can 

 appeal to Mr Lumifden, now in England, as to the extent of 

 this perfon's practice and knowledge, and that he knew 

 very little when firil fent to me. In the twenty months 

 which he ftaid with me at Algiers, by affiduous application 

 to proper fubjects under my inftruction, he became a very 

 confiderable help to me, and was the only one that ever I 

 made ufe of, or that attended me for a moment, or ever 

 touched one-reprefentation of architecture in any part of my 

 journey. He contracted an incurable diilemper in Palestine,, 

 and died after a long (icknefs, foon after I entered Ethiopia, 

 after having fuffered conftanr. ill-health from the time he 

 left Sidon. 



While travelling in Spain, it was a thought which fre- 

 quently fuggefled itfelf to me, how little informed the 

 world yet was in the hiftory of that kingdom and mo- 

 narchy. The Moorifli part in particular, when it was moll 

 celebrated for riches and for feience, was fcarccly known 

 but from fome romances or novels. It feemed an under- 

 taking worthy of a man of letters to refcue this period, 

 from the oblivion or neglect under which it laboured. 

 Materials were not wanting for this, as a confiderable num- 

 ber of books remained in a neglected and almoll unknown 

 language, the Arabic. I endeavoured to find accefs to fome 



of 



