VICTORIAN TRAVELER'S ROME

Murray, John [Firm]

A Handbook of Rome and Its Environs [Twelfth Edition — With Numerous Plans, Folding Maps & 76-Page Handbook Advertiser]

London: John Murray, 1875.

MURRAY'S CLASSIC VICTORIAN GUIDE TO ROME — WITH MAPS, PLANS AND TRAVEL ADVERTISEMENTS.
A substantial 1875 edition of Murray's celebrated red-covered travel handbook to Rome, designed as a practical companion for the English-speaking traveler while providing detailed coverage of the city's antiquities, churches, museums, galleries, architecture and surrounding countryside. 

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: BUILT FOR THE VICTORIAN TRAVELER.
+++ Small thick octavo in the publisher's flexible red cloth, ruled in blind, with gilt lettering to the upper board and spine: Murray's Hand-Book / Rome & Its Environs. Spine additionally bears the original 10/- price.
+++ viii; [1], 10–525 pages, including index, followed by 76 pages of advertisements. Illustrated throughout with architectural and archaeological plans, maps and diagrams, several folding.
+++ The contents range from practical information for travelers—hotels, passports, tradespeople, chronological tables and church ceremonies—to extensive descriptions of ancient and modern Rome. Coverage includes the Forum, palaces, temples, amphitheaters, baths, tombs, aqueducts, medieval buildings, churches, museums, galleries, villas, catacombs and excursions into the environs.
+++ The list of plans identifies detailed treatments of such sites as the Roman Forum, Palatine, Colosseum, Baths of Caracalla, St. Peter's, Vatican, Lateran, Capitoline Museum, Borghese Gallery, catacombs, Tivoli, Ostia and the Alban and Tusculan Hills.
+++ LARGE FOLDING MAP IN THE REAR POCKET. The rear pocket retains the large folding Plan of Rome, approximately 29.5 × 22.5 inches unfolded, showing the city's streets, monuments, archaeological sites, railway lines and developing outer districts.
+++ 76 PAGES OF VICTORIAN TRAVEL ADVERTISEMENTS.
The separately paginated Murray's Handbook Advertiser contains advertisements for hotels and travel services across Europe, including illustrated hotel advertisements. The surviving advertisements turn the volume into more than a guide to monuments: they document the commercial infrastructure supporting affluent international tourism in the 1870s.

CONDITION: VERY GOOD — MAPS AND PLANS RETAINED.
+++ Publisher's red cloth remains bright and attractive, with moderate handling and rubbing, particularly at the spine ends, corners and extremities; some fading and surface variation to the spine and boards. Gilt lettering remains strong.
+++ Binding is sound. Interior generally clean with expected occasional toning, handling and scattered minor marks. Period pencil and ink ownership notations appear on the front pastedown/blank.
+++ Folding plans and maps show the expected folds and occasional handling associated with use. The large folding map retained in the rear pocket presents well.
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HISTORICAL: SIGNIFICANCE — THE RED BOOK BEFORE BAEDEKER DOMINATED THE TOURIST'S HANDBOOK.
John Murray's Handbooks for Travellers were among the defining guidebooks of nineteenth-century British tourism. The familiar red Murray handbook became sufficiently associated with British travelers that contemporary commentary could treat the book itself as an identifying feature of the English tourist. The advertising leaf preserved in this copy makes the point explicitly, quoting The Times on English travelers carrying Murray's ‘RED HANDBOOK.’

ROME AT A MOMENT OF TRANSFORMATION.
This edition appeared only five years after Rome became part of the Kingdom of Italy and four years after the city became the national capital. Its maps and descriptions therefore record Rome during an important period of transition from the papal city encountered by earlier Grand Tour travelers toward the rapidly developing capital of unified Italy.

ARCHAEOLOGY ENTERS THE TOURIST GUIDE.
The twelfth edition was not merely reprinted from earlier Murray texts. This edition includes material from archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani, diplomat and traveler J. B. Pentland, archaeologist John Henry Parker, and editor Arthur John Strutt.

SUBJECTS: Rome, Italy, Victorian Tourism, Grand Tour, Roman Antiquities, Archaeology, Architecture, Roman Forum, Vatican, Churches, Museums, Art Galleries, Maps, City Plans, Nineteenth-Century Travel, John Murray, British Travelers, Italian Unification, Travel Advertising.

Item #22525

Price: $95.00