Baedeker (1913) Northern Italy – Grand Tour Travel

$40.00

Out of stock

Description

Baedeker, Karl. Northern Italy including Leghorn, Florence, Ravenna and Routes through France, Switzerland, and Austria; Handbook for Travellers. With 36 maps, 45 plans, and a panorama. Fourteenth Remodeled Edition (Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1913)

Duodecimo (4.25″ x 6.25″). lxviii, 698 pages plus maps, plans, a panorama and index. Flexible binding, red with stamping in gilt and blind. Endpapers – front adv for other Baedekers, rear map of Italy. Silk ribbon bound in. All edges marbled.

Condition: Near fine. A few bumped pages, previous owner’s name and date of purchase at bottom of front pastedown.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a rite of passage for the wealthy was “The Grand Tour” – a several month long trip to Europe to “do the Baedeker”, meaning to visit every important cultural site possible. Karl Baedeker began writing these guides in the 1850s and his publishing company continued doing so through both world wars into the 1970s. They were the preeminent tour guide in the Victorian era. Collecting Baedekers has become a subspecies of collectible in its own right.