An Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy: With Observations on the Mistakes of Some Travellers, with Regard to that Country.
London: Printed for T. Davies, 1768. Item #952 Together 3 works in 2 volumes, all first editions. 8vo. 210 x 130 mm. Bound in contemporary English calf, gilt decorated spine with leather labels; spines rubbed with loss of labels for volume numbers, joints cracked; with faults a desirable copy of Baretti’s defense of the Italian character. “I had long observed, with some indignation, that the generality of travel-writers are apt to turn the thoughts of those young people who go abroad, upon frivolous and unprofitable object, and to habituate them to premature and rash judgments, upon every thing they see. I have therefore taken occasion, especially from this book of Mr. Sharp, to make them sensible, if I can, of the errors they are led into, and to point out to them some objects of inquiry more worthy of the curiosity of sensible persons, and caution them against being too ready to condemn everything but what they have seen practiced at home. An indiscriminate admiration of foreign manners and customs shows great folly; but an indiscriminate censure is both foolish and malignant.” Baretti’s two volume defense and description of Italy is one of the classic accounts written in the 18th century. Prodded by Sharps’ criticism of the Italian people Baretti produced a systematic account of the people and culture of Italy and brought to light not only the history of a great people but a rendering of contemporary Italian society that was to define his country for English travelers well into the 19th century. This copy includes the first edition of Baretti’s Account, a first edition of Sharp’s View, and the rare first edition of Baretti’s Appendix, which was to appear with the second edition of the Account published the next year. Because of Baretti’s close relationship with Dr. Johnson, his controversy with Sharp was to become one of the most highly debated literary spats of the period. Laid-into this volume is a contemporary newspaper account of Baretti’s “defense of himself and account of the affair, which he was tried for at the Old Bailey – read in Court by himself, Oct. 1769.” This refers to the death of man by Baretti’s hand who accosted him because of the apparent verbal abuse he made to a prostitute who propositioned him on the streets of Soho. A quoted in the paper, Baretti’s account was a sincere and detailed retelling of the events, which after consideration were accepted by the Court and he was allowed to go free. Pine-Coffin, Bibliography of British and American Travel in Italy to 1860, p. 122. Ingamells, A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800, p. 850.
Bound with: Sharp, Samuel. A View of the Customs, Manners, Drama, &c. of Italy, as they are Described in the Frusta Letteraria’; and in The Account of Italy in English Written by Mr. Baretti; compared with The Letters from Italy; Written by Mr. Sharp. [iv], 82 [2] pp. London: W, Nichols, 1768.
Bound with: Baretti, Joseph. An Appendix to the Account of Italy, in Answer to Samuel Sharp, Esq. 64 pp. London: Printed for T. Davies, 1768.
Price: $1,500.00