Armenia: A Year at Erzeroom, and on the Frontiers of Russia, Turkey and Persia (Illustrated Edition)

Robert Curzon, 14th Baron Zouche (1810-73), styled The Honourable Robert Curzon between 1829-70, was an English traveller, diplomat and author, active in the near East. He was responsible for acquiring several important Biblical manuscripts from Eastern Orthodox monasteries which after his death were donated by his daughter to the British Museum and have since been transferred to the British Library. In 1842-43 he was joint British Commissioner in Erzurum (Erzeroom) as part of the British-Turkish-Persian-Russian boundary commission sitting to delineate the Turkish and Persian frontier. This book, published in 1854 and illustrated with woodcuts and a map, gives an account of his time there. His earlier book, Visits to Monasteries in the Levant (1849), describes how on a visit to Mount Athos in 1837 he was offered the early Biblical texts by the abbot of the Monastery of St Paul who claimed to have no use for them.