A Classical Tour Through Italy. An. MDCCCII. Third edition, revised and enlarged. 4 vols (set)

Description

~Original full tan diced calf, double gilt fillets and gilt roll with floral motif framing boards. Low raised bands and ornate gilt decor to spines. Two brown gilt labels per spine. Gilt decor to board edges and turn-ins. Top corner of front board of vol. II slightly bumped. Small minor abrasion to front board of vol. III. 8vos (14 x 22.4cm). All edges marbled. Endpapers marbled in Stormont pattern and uncracked at gutters. Armorial bookplate of William Money Kyrle (1776-1848; rector of Yatesbury, Wiltshire, from 1801 to 1843) to inside front board of all vols. Binder”s ticket of Washbourn, Glocester, to inside front board of vol. I. Lacking map frontis. to vol. I, but with 10 plates as called for to vol. II, some folding. Minor scattered foxing. John Chetwode Eustace (1761-1815), travel writer and Catholic priest. ”A Classical Tour through Italy and Sicily”, first published in 1813, was developed from journals kept by Eustace during his 1801-02 tour of Italy as tutor and companion to three young gentlemen, including John Cust (later Lord Brownlow), to whom the work is dedicated. An immediate success, the Tour went through 8 edns between 1813 and 1841 (of which this is the third, ”revised and enlarged”), becoming ”becoming the standard vade-mecum of classical tourists” (ODNB). ”While antiquarian in tone, with an aesthetic preference for pure classicism over the Gothic and baroque styles, it was eloquent in its denunciation of contemporary absolutism and its championship of Italian liberty” (ODNB). A handsome set. ~Robust packaging. Overseas orders trackable on request.