Roadside Songs of Tuscany

Kent: George Allen, 1885. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Half gilt-ruled morocco and marbled paper, gilt-stamped lettering and ornament in spine compartments (5 raised bands), t.e.g.; 4to (235x300mm); pp. [6], 340, with 20 mounted platinotypes, each having a curved top and measuring 178x255mm; photographs by Frederick Hollyer from drawings and calligraphy by Francesca Alexander. First book edition, originally issued in ten parts. Boards rubbed; some moderate scuffing along joints, rasied bands, and edges of boards; corners bumped. Some minor off-setting, but contents are overall bright and clean.

In 1884, due to ill health, Ruskin resigned his professorship at Oxford and retired to the seclusion of Brentwood. There he introduced the public to sketches of Tuscan life in pen and pencil by his American friend Miss Francesca Alexander. Fanny Alexander moved to Italy with her parents at age sixteen and spent her life there doing charity work and art. In 1882 she was introduced to Ruskin. He saw her manuscript of "Roadside Songs of Tuscany" which he found fascinating for its precise, finely detailed yet simple drawings. He purchased the manuscript, published parts of it here and donated pages to Oxford and other British institutions. The photographer Frederick H. Hollyer was prominent during the 1890's for his excellent platinotype portraits of well known artists photographed in their own surroundings.