FIRST EDITION. David Roberts (1796-1864) was born in Edinburgh and his early working life was taken up working with a decorator and then as a scene painter around 1817. In 1822 he moved south to the Drury Lane theatre in London. In the 1820s he made trips to Normandy in France and from 1832-33 he worked in Spain and Tangier. This trip along with others made to Egypt, the Holy Land and Italy provided him with the material for his great publications. The first of which was this set of views of Spain, for which he was paid £350. Abbey quotes John Ruskin as saying that Roberts was “like a kind of grey mirror; he gave the greatness and richness of things, and such height and space… as one saw to be true… the minute knowledge and acute sensation throw us back into ourselves; haunting us to the examination of points and enjoyments of moments … the splendour of the aisles of Seville or the strength of the towers of Granada …”. Roberts in fact worked on every stone himself, “the figures in many of them being entirely his own drawings” (Abbey). Abbey Travel 152; Hardie (1906) p. 247; Mallalieu (1986).