KELSALL, Charles.

Classical Excursion from Rome to Arpino.

Geneva, printed for the author, 1820. Large 8vo, pp. [4], 254, [2], printed on thick paper, with large folding engraved frontispiece after Kelsall, and 4 plates (3 engraved, 1 litho); occasionally a little spotted and lightly browned in places but a very good copy in contemporary half calf and marbled boards, rebacked with modest gilt spine and black label. First edition of Kelsall's privately printed homage to Cicero's memory, which includes an account of his villas. In 1819 Kelsall walked from Rome to Arpino, birthplace of Cicero, where he was horrified to find no memorial to the great orator. Kelsall, amateur architect, proposes a monument to Cicero and a footbridge over the Fibrenus (both illustrated). The book is full of wonderful Kelsallian digressions, some philosophical, other social, many architectural. He outlined a scheme for 'purifying' St. Peter's, 'the first modern pile in the world', in which the Bernini colonnade was to be retained but St. Peter's itself to be remodelled with rows of giant Greek Doric columns.RIBA, Early Printed Books, 1645; Borroni 3357.

• GBP 650.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: A960

• bookseller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)