The Tourist in Spain. Granada.

London: Robert Jennings and Co., 1835. Hardcover. 8 by 5 inches; 202 by 130 mm. xv, 288 pages. Hardcover, in very good condition. Soundly bound in clean, dark green calf with gilt lettering and decoration on the spine and blind-stamped decoration and rules to both boards. Mild wear at tips and corners and along the lower edges of the boards. Tissue guard missing for plate opposite page 173, with mild offsetting to p. 173. Minimal foxing--text and engraved plates are in bright, fine condition. All edges gilt. Item #882

Twenty-one engraved illustrations after drawings by the Scottish artist David Roberts, including a frontispiece and a vignette-title preceding the main title page, and ten wood engravings at chapter heads. The vignette-title is labeled "Jennings' Landscape Annual for 1835, or Tourist in Spain commencing with Granada." The 1835 issue was the first of four Landscape Annual books on Spain with text by Roscoe and illustrated by Roberts; the others dealt with Andalusia, Biscay and the Castiles, and Morocco. Following his tour of Spain and North Africa, Roberts went on to great success with his depictions of Egypt and the Near East. From a review in The Gentleman's Magazine, published in London in July of 1834: "Jennings's Landscape Annual/or 1835, or, Tourist in Spain, commencing with Grenada.—The narrative belonging to this book is written by Mr. Roscoe, and is intended to develope the character of the Moors, and the Moorish history; and to detail the circumstances connected with their memorable fall. For this purpose he has woven a tale of splendid fiction, which he has adorned with great luxuriance of language and variety of anecdote, occasionally supported by annotations containing much local information, and heightened by quotations from the romantic ballads of Spain. But the great charm of the work must be considered to exist in the masterly sketches of Mr. Roberts, who has piled up his towering battlements and frowning castles, amid the wild and lofty mountains that rise to guard them; or detailed to us with a rich and curious pencil, the fine arabesque courts, halls, and gateways and galleries, the marble fountains and colonnades, the rich capitals, the fretted domes, and elaborate ceilings, which even now, beautiful in their decay, give a melancholy assurance of their former surpassing loveliness and grandeur. . . . The plates, by Goodall and Fisher, are executed with spirit and taste; and we have no hesitation in pronouncing this to be one of the most beautiful Annuals, which bids fair to become a Perennial."

Price: $750.00

See all items in Spain and Portugal
See all items by