[Rarebooks] fa: HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI - JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE, ITALY AND GERMANY - 1789 - 2 vols./Tree Calf

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 6. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/7pgngb4

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Hester Lynch Piozzi: Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany. London: Printed for A. Strahan; and T. Cadell in the Strand, 1789. FIRST EDITION. Two volumes, 8vo, in period tree calf, gilt-tooled spines and morocco labels; vii, [1], 437 pp.; [2], 389, [6] pp.; woodcut illustration, 6 pp. of publisher's adverts. ESTC T71718.

Bindings a bit worn at the edges and extremities, one hinge professionally repaired, others cracked but boards are secure; some scattered foxing to the endpapers, occasional small spots elsewhere; otherwise quite clean. A handsome set. Engraved armorial bookplate of W.C.E. Napier ("Sans Tache") and later engraved pictorial bookplates of Bernardine Murphy. William Craig Emilius Napier (1818-1903), writer, historian and soldier, was the son of Gen. Sir George Thomas Napier. Bernardine Murphy Donahue (d. 1968) was a papal countess, prominent California philanthropist, and book collector. She donated her Bernard Maybeck-designed manse to the archdiocese of Los Angeles and gave her name to the Countess Bernardine Murphy Donohue Rare Book Room of the Gleeson Library at the University of San Francisco.

A lively account of her travels on the Continent by the former Hester Thrale (1741-1821), whose remarriage to the Italian music teacher Gabriel Mario Piozzi caused a rupture, never fully repaired, in her long, close, and complicated relationship with Samuel Johnson. In this, her "first work not to fall under the long shadow of Johnson" (ODNB), she provides a colorful glimpse of France on the eve of the Revolution and her observations on Italy were a key source for Ann Radcliffe's gothic landmark, The Mysteries of Udolpho.