Roadside Songs of Tuscany. Translated from the Italian and Illustrated by Francesca Alexander - Edited by John Ruskin
first edition
1887 · New York
by RUSKIN, JOHN & ALEXANDER, FRANCESCA
New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1887. First Edition - American. 340 pages. Ownership inscription dated 1888. Illustrated. Very good copy with some minor dust soiling and edge wear and a few tiny tears to the cloth at the top of the spine. A collection of folk ballads and poems from Tuscany. From the preface by the book’s author and translator, Francesca Alexander: “These songs and hymns of the poor people have been collected, little by little, in the course of a great many years which I have passed in constant intercourse with the Tuscan contadini. They are but the siftings, so to say, of hundreds and hundreds which I have heard and learnt, mostly from old people - many of them have never, so far as I know, been written down before, and others it would be impossible to find.” (Inventory #: 16467E)