Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893. Item #1501

8vo. 240 x 180 mm., [9 ½ x 7 inches]. xii + 374 pp., with twenty-five unnumbered leaves of plates inserted between pages of text and Appendices: Ludi Saeculares, Inscription edited by Mommsen; Index. Twenty-six full-page black and white illustrations, one as the frontispiece and the remaining on the unnumbered leaves references above, and ninety black and white illustrations included within the text. Quarter-bound in publishers’ white cloth with gilt lettering on the spine and a gilt border where the two sections of cloth meet and red cloth over boards with gilt lettering on the front cover; bottom and fore-edges deckled; top edge gilt; red bookmarker ribbon; red cloth dust jacket with gilt lettering on the spine. Book is Near Fine: moderate soiling and shelf wear along the spine; some foxing and discoloration of the pages throughout, especially in the preliminaries and on some of the illustrated pages; first and second free leaves dog-eared; otherwise in fairly good condition. Jacket is Good: heavy fading of the spine and discoloration along the top edge of the front cover; chipped along the top and bottom edges of the covers; moderate soiling and shelf wear.

Early Edition. Rodolfo Lanciani (1845-1929) was an Italian archeologist who conducted extensive research on the topography and monuments of Rome informed by his participation in several major excavations of ancient sites – such as the House of the Vestals inside the Roman Forum. Between 1893 and 1901 he published a set of forty-six detailed maps, the Forma Urbis Romae, showing all the ancient and modern structures that form the city of Rome, a resource which is still being used and added to by researchers today. Pagan and Christian Rome, one among several of his noted works describing life in Ancient Rome, examines the transformation of Roman society following the widespread adoption of Christianity as the primary religion of the empire in the early fourth century. Lanciani uses archeological evidence as well as primary sources to highlight the influence that this shift had on the lives of citizens but also on the architectural and artistic output they left behind.

Price: $100.00