Fernique, Etienne-Victor, abbe (1836-1915). Collection of Forty-Eight Original Albumen Stereo-view Photographs of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Bethphage and Bethany, Issued in the Series: Souvenirs de Terre Sainte. [Paris]: ca. 1860s.

Forty-eight pairs of albumen stereo-view photographs, each pair ca. 8.5x16 cm (3 ¼ x 6 ¼ in) mounted on original publisher?s cards; printed captions in French on the mount rectos, occasional pencil numbers on versos. A couple of images mildly faded, most mounts with small cutouts of lower corners to fit viewer, otherwise a very good collection of strong interesting images.

Interesting collection of early stereo-view photographs showing both universal Christian and specifically Catholic landmarks of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Bethphage and Bethany. Thirty-four views of Jerusalem show the City of David archaeological site, eleven views of different parts of Via Dolorosa, three views of the Armenian Cathedral of Saint James (interior and exterior), the Palace of High Priest, Zion Gate, Palace of Caiaphas on Mount Zion, Franciscan Chapel of Flagellation, Catholic Church of Saint Anne, three views of the Garden of Gethsemane, five views of the Catholic Church of Pater Noster, bridge across the Kidron brook, the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem (Co-Cathedral of the Most Holy Name of Jesus), galleries under the Psephina Tower, and others. The collection also includes two views of Jaffa, two views of Bethphage (similar to each other, but numbered differently), two views of Bethlehem (the Cisterns of David and terraces of the Franciscan convent), three views of Bethany (ruins of the Benedictine convent, Jardin de Madeleine, Pierres du Colloque), and two views of St.-Jean dans la Montagne (modern-day Ein Karem neighbourhood of Jerusalem, the birthplace of St. John the Baptist), showing the general view of the village and Franciscan Church of Visitation. It is interesting that eight photos feature the same European middle-aged man (one photo shows only his hat) posing in front of the sites, who was most likely Fr. Fernique himself. Overall a very good collection of early stereo-views of the Holy Land.

The photographer, abbe Etienne-Victor Fernique was a French Catholic priest from the Paris diocese who took two trips to the Holy Land after he had been ordained in 1862, and organized over seventy educational lectures in Paris and its suburbs with the use of stereoscope. Later on he became a Knight of the Order of Holy Sepulchre, and in 1889-1906 served as a cure of the Catholic Church of Saint Etienne in the Noisy-le-Sec suburb of Paris.