[Rarebooks] fs: Ancient Roman Baths... er, Bath

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

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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