Movement through Ruins: Re-experiencing
Ancient Baalbek with Jean de la Roque
This paper considers the account of the ruins of Baalbek in Jean de la Roque’s Voyages de Syrie et du Mont-Liban. Published in 1722, thirty-three years after his visit to Lebanon, it represents the first detailed account of the ruins. The re-attribution of a manuscript letter in Aix-en-Provence confirms that La Roque never visited the site; instead, he seems to have based his account on the drawings of André de Monceaux executed around 1670. Yet, although not based on genuine autopsy, his detailed description presents the architecture from the perspective of a viewer moving among the ruins. This prominent imagination of the motion of the spectator, derived from Lucian’s architectural narratives, constitutes a revolution in the genre of architectural description.