BYRON, George Gordon Noel, Lord.

£975 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. First illustrated edition. The fine heraldic binding was commissioned for Prince Antonio Boncompagni Ludovisi (1808-1883), who was appointed to the first senate during Italy's reunification in 1861. At this time in the country, Byron's posthumous "popularity became so great that he came to be regarded as a native Italian poet" (Zuccato, p. 85). This volume also has the slightly later bookplate of a Count Sanminiatelli.Childe Harold - the work that made Byron famous - was first published between 1812 and 1818. This edition was published in one volume, with fine steel engravings by William Finden and his brother, Edward, which "sensitively conveyed to a wide contemporary audience images of Byron's life and work" (ODNB). These engravings are accompanied by a folding map, also by Finden, showing the journey of "Childe Harold" from England to Portugal, across the Mediterranean to Malta, through Greece and the Aegean islands to Troy and Constantinople.

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