Galleria storica dell'Italia contenente in cento intagli miniati i fatti più notabili avvenuti nel corso di X secoli illustrati di descrizioni e notizie. Volume unico in due parti.

Two volumes in 4to (344x258 mm). [2], 668 pp. and [58] color plates; [4], 669–1191, [5], CCLXXXVII, [1] pp.  and [43] color plates. Chromolithographic title page at the beginning of the first volume. Text printed within elegant colored frames and accompanied by one hundred exquisitely crafted chalcographic plates, executed by skilled engravers including Lasinio, based on compositions by Turchi, Folchi, and other artists. The illustrations, in vivid contemporary hand-coloring and protected by tissue paper, depict scenes from the lives of the protagonists and the events narrated in the text. Pages 249–250 are present twice in the volume. Pages 569–576 is mistakenly placed after p. 636. Contemporary half-leather binding with gilt title and ornaments on the spine, covers covered by marbled paper, marbled endpapers (hinges slightly worn, very slight abrasions on the covers). Minor restorations to the margins of some pages not affecting the text or the illustrations, very slight marginal foxing on some pages, restoration to the lower part of the title pages without damage. A good copy.

An interesting and enjoyable work, written in the typical popular style of the nineteenth century. The volumes span nearly ten centuries of Italian history, tracing key events and figures from 888—the reign of Berengar I—through 1815, which marked Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo and his exile to Saint Helena.

[15998]