Picturesque Tour from Geneva to Milan, by way of the Simplon: illustrated with Thirty Six Coloured Views of the most striking scenes and of the principal works belonging to the new road constructed over that mountain, engraved from designs by J. and J. Lory, of Neufchatel; and accompanied with Particulars Historical and Descriptive.

SCHOBERL, Frederic.

Edité par London: R. Ackermann, 1820

First separate British edition. This beautifully illustrated book was first issued as Voyage Pittoresque de Genève à Milan par le Simplon (1811) and then by Ackermann from 1818 to 1820 in his monthly magazine, the Repository of Arts. The Simplon Road was still a relatively new construction, built between 1801 and 1805 on the orders of Napoleon to facilitate the transport of artillery between the Rhône valley and Italy. Following the Napoleonic Wars, it opened up new vistas to tourists, enabling them to admire the fashionably "picturesque" qualities of the scenery, exemplified in the present series of views by the celebrated Swiss landscape artists Gabriel Lory the Elder and his son Mathias Gabriel; the latter is describing the Simplon Pass as "grand et terrible" and "comparing its effect on the imagination to Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Haydn's Creation" (cited in Bevis, p. 140). The views include scenes of Geneva, Sion, Brieg, Simplon, Algaby, Lake Maggiore, Gondo, Isola Bella, Crevola, Sesto, Lake Como, and Milan. The text was supplied by Frederic Schoberl, who had a long association with the publisher Rudolph Ackermann, described as "the great presiding genius, before whose magic wand so many pictorial books sprang into existence" (Hardie, p. 96). Not in Abbey; Prideaux, pp. 351 and 377; Tooley 446. Richard Bevis, The Road to Egdon Heath: The Aesthetics of the Great in Nature, 1999; Martin Hardie, English Coloured Books, 1906. Quarto (262 x 175 mm). With 36 hand-coloured aquatint plates (Whatman watermarks dated 1819 and 1820), engraved map by H. Frost, tissue guards. Contemporary dark blue half calf, spine with 4 low raised bands, each decorated with a gilt triple fillet closed by foliate finials, gilt-lettered direct, other compartments with gilt foliate motif enclosed by a frame of paired gilt fillets and scrolling foliate tools, sides and corners trimmed with a blind decorative roll, marbled sides, endpapers, and edges. Binding just a little rubbed, small old repair to front cover, light bumps to a couple of corners, plate facing p. 78 lacking tissue guard. A very good copy. N° de réf. du vendeur 176147

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Picturesque Tour from Geneva to Milan, by ...
Éditeur : London: R. Ackermann, 1820
Edition : Edition originale