BAEDEKER, Karl [Ludwig Johannes], 1801-1859

[Italy, comprising] I. Northern Italy including Leghorn, Florence, Ravenna and routes through France, Switzerland, and Austria; [with] II. Central Italy and Rome; [and] III. Southern Italy and Sicily with excursions to Sardinia, Malta, and Corfu; Handbook for Travellers

Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, Publisher, [various]. [various]. Stamped Cloth. An excellent 3-volume set (each volume issued separately) of early editions for the traveler wanting a handy panoramic survey of the entire country, in matching bindings. Foolscap 8vo (158 x 99mm): lxviii,698, with 36 maps, 45 plans, and panorama of the Alps; lxxvi,470, with 14 maps, 49 plans, table of coats of arms of the Popes since 1417, panorama, view of Forum Romanum and 14pp street index of Rome; lvi,508pp, with 30 maps and 34 plans. Publisher's red flexible cloth stamped in blind and gilt, all edges marbled. Gilt lettering bright; bindings clean, square and tight; maps properly folded and mostly free of tears. All are unusually well-preserved copies, Fine, fresh, and bright but for owner's signature to front paste-down and title page of vol. 1; lightly rubbed spine ends of vol. III. Northern: Fourteenth Remodeled Edition (1913). Light underlining in pencil (erasable) to early pages, else fresh and bright; one map with neat tape repair. Central: Fourteenth Revised Edition (1904). One map with short closed tear. Southern: Sixteenth Revised Edition (1912). Red and green page markers detached but laid in. A superb set (and scarce thus). Baedekers were bought to be used under less than ideal circumstances; as such, their condition is rarely (if ever) perfectly pristine. Hinrichsen E141, E156, E174. Near Fine+. Item #BB2281

"The Romantic movement in Germany had given a new impetus to travel . . . In 1828, [Karl] Baedeker bought the rights to J. A. Klein's Rheinreise von Mainz bis Köln and, after Klein's death, Baedeker himself revised and updated the work, recreating it for a new market. Using his own travel experiences, he guided the tourist to the principal attractions in each place, saving travellers the expense of hiring their own guide. He thus created a new type of guidebook, which was widely copied throughout Europe and opened up tourism to a new class of visitor. The reliability of the information was ensured by annual journeys by Baedeker himself and by reference to respected published sources and expert scholars. . . . For the serious tourist, a Baedeker was indispensable, its tone, especially with respect to southern Europeans, assuring northerners of their superiority, and suggesting ways of avoiding dangers. When Lucy Honeychurch finds herself ‘In Santa Croce with no Baedeker,’ in Forster's A Room with a View, she is entirely lost." (ODNB) Note: With few exceptions (always noted), we only stock Baedekers in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene wrappers.

Price: $326.00