[Rarebooks] fa: THE VOYAGE OF ITALY, or A COMPLEAT JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY - Richard Lassels - 1670

[ArCh]

Auction ends Sunday, November 5. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/mpfur25k

Many thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Richard Lassels: The Voyage of Italy, or A Compleat Journey through Italy. In Two Parts. With the Characters of the People, and the Description of the Chief Towns, Churches, Monasteries, Tombs, Libraries, Pallaces, Villas, Gardens, Pictures, Statues, and Antiquities. As also of the Interest, Government, Riches, Force, &c. of all the Princes. With Instructions concerning Travel. By Richard Lassels, Gent. who Travelled through Italy Five Times as Tutor to several of the English Nobility and Gentry. Never before Extant. Newly printed at Paris, and are to be sold in London, by John Starkey, at the Mitre in Fleet street near Temple-Barr, 1670. First edition; two parts bound in one; large 12mo (15.5 cm) in early/period polished calf, rebacked in later calf, spine label lettered in gilt, page edges dyed red; [44], 251, [1], 192, 195-326, 337-447, [5] pp.; extra engraved title-page. Wing L465; ESTC R2418.

An early example of a guidebook for young gentlemen embarking on the Grand Tour, that rite of passage of the Age of Enlightenment. The author, Richard Lassels, was an English Catholic divine, based in Douai, France, who acted as tutor and tour guide for several "persons of distinction," travelling with them through France, Holland, Germany, and, most extensively, Italy. He died in 1688 and the work was published posthumously, edited by Lassels' friend Simon Wilson, and is dedicated to Richard, Lord Lumley, viscount Waterford, the last of his young travelling companions. John Wilkes described the book as "one of the best accounts of the curious things of Italy ever delivered to the world in any book of travels." Uncommon: ESTC locates only three copies in libraries in the UK (Oxford, London Oratory, Hereford Cathedral) and three in the U.S. (Getty, UCLA, UT Harry Ransom Center).

Binding with light rubbing, a few minor bumps and dings; browning to the title-page and frontispiece, mild toning to the leaves elsewhere, a few examples of early ms. fingerposts and annotations in the margins, occasional small spots and stains, else clean and sound, firmly bound. Front paste-down with the armorial bookplate of John Wright of Kelvedon Hall, Essex, and the early ink notation: "Bo[ugh]t of F.E. 13 Oct[obe]r 1737."