TRAVELING THE ALPS IN 1881

Amthor, Eduard (1820–1884)

Tirolerführer: Travel Guide to Tyrol and the Alps [Updated 1881 Fourth Edition]

Gera, Germany: Eduard Amthor, 1881. Fourth, thoroughly revised and enlarged edition.

THE ALPS IN A TRAVELER'S POCKET.
An extensive nineteenth-century guide to Tyrol and the surrounding Alpine regions, compiled by Eduard Amthor from nearly forty years of personal travel experience, scientific sources, and information supplied by knowledgeable Alpine correspondents. More than an itinerary book, it provides routes, distances, accommodations, landscape descriptions, local history, and practical information for travelers moving through the Eastern Alps.

AN UPDATED FOURTH EDITION.
First issued in its fourth, thoroughly revised and enlarged edition in 1878, the Tirolerführer was subsequently updated as travel conditions changed. This copy is the updated 1881 issue of the fourth edition, retaining the 1878 title page while incorporating corrections and additions current to 1881.

FROM INNSBRUCK TO THE HIGH ALPS.
Amthor organizes the guide geographically around routes and excursions through German- and Italian-speaking Tyrol, extending into Bavaria, Vorarlberg, Salzburg, Carinthia, northern Italy, and Switzerland. Entries provide travel times, elevations, roads and footpaths, villages, mountain passes, inns, historical sites, and suggested excursions.

A GUIDE BUILT FROM EXPERIENCE.
The title page emphasizes Amthor's nearly forty years of personal travel in the region. Contemporary notice of this fourth edition likewise identified it as an established guide that had been substantially revised and enlarged.

HISTORICAL and ALPINE SIGNIFICANCE: BEFORE MASS TOURISM IN THE TYROL.
Amthor's guide belongs to the formative period of modern Alpine tourism, when railways were making the region increasingly accessible while much travel within the mountains still depended upon walking, carriage roads, local guides, and carefully described routes.

Eduard Amthor was closely associated with popularizing knowledge of the Alps. In addition to his guidebooks, he published and edited Der Alpenfreund, devoted to Alpine geography, travel, natural history, and culture. His Tirolerführer went through numerous expanded editions from its first appearance in 1868.

THE PRACTICAL WORLD OF THE 1880s TRAVELER.
The green-paper Gasthofstafel is particularly evocative. Rather than merely naming hotels, it records prices and facilities and identifies establishments recommended to travelers. Combined with the 1881 corrections, it turns the volume into a compact snapshot of the actual infrastructure of Alpine travel at the beginning of the 1880s.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: THE TEXT EDITION.
+++ FULL TITLE. Published as Tirolerführer: Reisehandbuch für Deutsch- und Wälschtirol unter Berücksichtigung der angrenzenden Gebietstheile des Bayerischen Hochlands, Vorarlbergs, Salzburgs, Kärntens, Oberitaliens und der Schweiz, und mit einer kurzen Beschreibung Münchens.

+++ FORMAT AND BINDING. Small octavo, approximately 6.5 × 4.5 inches. Original flexible red cloth, ruled in blind and lettered in gilt on the front: 'AMTHOR, TIROLER-FÜHRER. IV. AUFLAGE. AUSGABE 1881.' Spine gilt-lettered.

+++ PAGINATION AND SUPPLEMENT. xx, 656 pages, including index, followed by Berichtigungen und Nachträge zu Amthor's Tirolerführer, 20 pages of corrections and additions current to 1881.
+++ THE TRAVELER'S INN DIRECTORY. Following the supplement are 19 pages printed on green paper comprising the Gasthofstafel zum Tirolerführer, a practical directory of hotels and inns, with proprietors, prices, meals, facilities, transportation, and local travel information.

+++ PUBLICATION AND ISSUE. The title page retains the 1878 fourth-edition imprint, Gera: Eduard Amthor; Innsbruck: Wagner'sche Universitätsbuchhandlung, while the binding is designated 'Ausgabe 1881.' The accompanying corrections and additions are likewise current to 1881. This copy is therefore catalogued as the updated 1881 issue of the 1878 fourth edition.

+++ MAPS AND PLANS. The title page calls for 23 maps, panoramas, and city plans, explicitly noting that they were issued 'in besonderem Einband' — in a separate binding. That separately bound cartographic supplement is not present with this text volume; there is no evidence of maps or plans having been removed from the volume itself.

CONDITION: USED BUT SOUND. Original flexible red cloth shows moderate shelf and handling wear, with rubbing at the edges and corners and scattered surface marks. Spine sun-faded with the gilt lettering substantially faded. Binding remains tight and square. Text is clean with light age-toning. The supplemental and green-paper advertising/directory sections remain bound at the rear.

SUBJECTS: Tyrol, Tirol, Austrian Alps, Italian Alps, South Tyrol, Dolomites, Innsbruck, Bozen, Bolzano, Alpine travel, mountaineering, nineteenth-century travel, hotels, inns, rail travel, travel history, German-language books, Travel guide, Alpine guidebook, regional guide, topographical guide, nineteenth-century travel literature, mountaineering reference.

Item #22439

Price: $75.00