James Dawkins

Statut : antiquary

1722-1757

Notes : Born in Jamaica the son of a wealthy sugar planter, Dawkins was educated at St. John's College, Oxford. He planned and sponsored an expedition around the eastern Mediterranean to the sites of classical antiquity, the first of its kind, unlike previoius military, diplomatic, or trading missions. He travelled with, among others, the classical scholar Robert Wood. The expedition resulted in the publication of The Ruins of Palmyra (1753) and The Ruins of Baalbec (1757), which had a powerful influence on classical taste in Britain and France, until then based on Vitruvian models. Dawkins was also an active politician and Jacobite sympathizer. [VC]

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