[Rarebooks] fs: Holy Ancient Roman Baths, Batman!

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

    "If we view the Roman dominion under its
     most favorable aspect, as the civilizer as
     well as the subjugator... we can yet find
     deep traces of ignorance and barbarism..."


Scarth, Rev. H.M. AQUAE SOLIS, OR NOTICES OF ROMAN BATH.

London; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.: 1864.

While acknowledging in his Introduction that prior studies have focused on 
the Roman remains of Bath, the author points out their shortcomings and 
inaccuracies, especially when transcribing and illustrating inscriptions. 
He writes that "The author's great object has been to collect together into 
one volume every fragment of the Roman times which is known to have existed 
or is still preserved..." and he has indeed collected tablets, metalwares, 
sculpture, architectural fragments, pottery, funeral inscriptions, and many 
more interesting pieces of the Roman puzzle. His descriptions are also 
quite painstaking, and the illustrations large and, if not overly elegant, 
very clean and clear.

Scarth's chief aim seems to be to understand how the Romans and their 
occupation affected Britain- "The study is not a dry collation of 
meaningless relics, but the gathering together of speaking memorials, which 
tell indeed of luxury, pomp, and display, but of superstition and 
ignorance... If we view the Roman dominion under its most favorable aspect, 
as the civilizer as well as the subjugator... we can yet find deep traces 
of ignorance and barbarism... The Roman occupation of this island must ever 
have a peculiar interest for its inhabitants, when the effect it has had on 
our law and language is considered. Much more is due to the Roman dominion 
than is generally supposed, and it is only by studying the remains of art, 
the inscriptions, and the language of that people, that we can adequately 
estimate the effect of their rule."

Hardcover. 9.5"x11.5", xiii + 137 pages, plus 52 lithographed plates by 
C.S. Beckett. Original gilt-stamped cloth covers, very minor cover soil, 
and some interiors foxing in several signatures. [05192] $250.00

Pictures-
<http://www.joslinhall.com/images03/th-05192.jpg>


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