The name of Louis Robert will not be unfamiliar to those involved in the archaeology of western Asia Minor. Over a period spanning four decades he conducted more than a score of expeditions to the region, amassing a considerable archive of epigraphic squeezes, photographs, detailed travel notebooks and a substantial collection of numismatic material, both coins and casts. In 1998 all this, together with Robert's correspondence and work in progress, was donated by his widow to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris under the superintendence of Glen Bowersock. Initially the task of cataloguing the coins in readiness for publication was given to François de Callataÿ, who, after some preliminary work suggesting that the collection warranted a monograph, enlisted the collaboration of D., but then, because of other commitments, handed over to him the whole task of bringing the project to fruition. The result is a triumph of painstaking scholarship and investigation, a true act of homage towards someone whose aim was, first and foremost, the accumulation of detailed information rather than a showpiece collection. For this reason the volume will not appeal to the average collector. To begin with, of the 1046 coins included, there is an overwhelming preponderance of bronze, often unprepossessing pieces that under other circumstances might have been consigned to a rummage tray. In addition, many are clearly worn almost to extinction, so that the images produced in the 93 plates owe much to the evident skill of their photographer, Thomas Faucher. To Robert, however, the inherent interest of a coin lay not in its state of preservation or style, but its place of issue and place of acquisition; for he reasoned that since such pieces were never likely to have strayed far from their place of origin, their discovery would often provide clues as to the site of otherwise unlocated settlements and the actual range of circulation. For this reason he was perfectly willing to acquire a coin that was barely legible in the hope that further investigation would ultimately allow decipherment and yield valuable information, and he railed at times against being pipped at the post, as it were, by others he deemed less worthy to acquire such material.

In putting together a catalogue such as this, there was inevitably a multitude of problems to be overcome. The first occurred in the transfer of the archive from Robert's home to the Institute of the Academy, when coins and their tickets at times became separated, or when it was discovered that some coins lacked tickets in the first place. Fortunately, the detailed notebooks of his expeditions kept by Robert often provided the essential information. Then there was the task of cataloguing coins that were highly worn, lacked their original inscriptions or whose very motifs were barely recognisable. At times it was only by reference to the standard handbooks and other experts in the field that identification became possible. But, as D. emphasises in the introduction, once again a prime source of information in such cases were the notebooks and their record of the place of acquisition, so that eventually only 45 pieces still lack precise attribution. Yet the notebooks themselves are not without their problems. Written in pencil and often while Robert was on the move, their writing has become abraded with time, something exacerbated by the frequent use of abbreviation and erasure. Then there are coins which D. lists as acquisitions mentioned in the notebooks but not found in the collection, or the evident contradictions between information given in Robert's publications and that contained within the coin-cabinet, or the contradictions even within the notebooks themselves, when coins are recorded as acquired in Turkey in years when Robert was absent from the place. In many cases such errors are readily understandable within an archive accumulated over several decades and, thanks to the author's exhaustive and patient analysis, they have often been open to resolution.

A further difficulty for the process of cataloguing stemmed from the time-scale of Robert's collecting, or rather from the fluidity in place-nomenclature that was occurring in Turkey at the time, when the authorities undertook what were multiple reassignments of name to a single place, something given additional complexity when the same name could be given to a wide array of locations. So for example, D. mentions fourteen instances of Karaköy, many of them within the areas visited by Robert and his wife. Once again, though, is it thanks to the notebooks that possible confusion and error have been avoided.

Rounding off the introduction is a useful digest of the expeditions Robert undertook in western Asia Minor from year to year, detailing not only the ancient provinces visited but also the distinct locations. This is followed by the catalogue itself, arranged in traditional Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum format, something D. points out Robert himself did not approve of, since it removes the evident affinities and influences that geographically neighbouring settlements might have on one another despite being in different regions. At first glance the provision of 93 plates for 1048 coins might seem unduly generous, but on inspection is fully justified by the wealth of detail D. provides, including not only those traditionally included but also (i) the location of the coin within the archive, preceded either by P (to indicate tray in the cabinet) or B (to indicate one of the boxes that also served as a means of Robert's storage system), (ii) the place and date of acquisition and (iii) as wide a range of bibliographic reference as possible in order to provide some indication of the frequency with which the specimens in the collection are found in the literature. Here is the true usefulness of the volume and readers will inevitably recognise the immense input of labour that has been involved, far more than can be given adequate recognition here.

Following the catalogue come a host of appendices, eight in total, listing such factors as place of issue, typology, countermarks, evidence for hoard material, issuers, both Greek and Roman, magistrate names and location of coin-acquisition, their usefulness amply matched by the 53 maps which complete the volume. These are excellently produced, showing graphically the route of Robert's travels from year to year, places where coins were acquired, mints represented in the collection and the dispersion of coins from selective mints.

This is a handsome volume, and while the limitations of this review preclude detailed discussion of the catalogue entries, there can be no doubt as to its value for any numismatic study of the region.