Beschreibung:

A select collection of the Views and Ruins in Rome and its vicinity.
London: Smith & Davy for Messrs. Robinson, White, Faulder and Evans, [published by J.Hearne, circa 1819, plates watermarked 1818, text 1806]. Folio (457 x 344 mm). Parallel text in French and English. Hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece and 61 plates. Contemporary blue roan-backed blue-gray paper boards, original letterpress title label on upper cover, uncut, modern cloth box with morocco lettering-piece. a very fine copy in original condition, almost certainly in the publisher's original binding, with the plates and text completely uncut, and unusually fine hand-coloring of the plates . The work was originally published in two parts in 1797 and 1799, and was available uncoloured on ordinary paper, or hand-coloured on large paper. After 1799 the two parts were sold together. White and Cochrane re-issued the work in about 1805, and the present issue with Hearne's imprint at the foot of the frontispiece appeared in about 1819. The Abbey collection included only the 1819 edition, and it is noted that the work probably cost 6 guineas. This would appear to be incorrect: the present copy, from the same edition, includes a stamped price of 15 guineas on the title label. The two later editions are traditionally described as having poor quality plates, but the present copy is an exception with hand-colouring of a very high quality. The work's survival in its original binding makes it particularly desirable. Abbey Travel 178; Lowndes p.1537.