VIAGGIO NEGLI STATI UNITI DELL' AMERICA SETTENTRIONALE FATTO NEGLI ANNI 1785, 1786, E 1787.
Castiglioni, Luigi:
Milan. 1790. Two volumes. xii,403; vi,402pp. plus five folding maps, nine plates (three folding), and three tables (all folding). Half title in first volume. Antique style three-quarter calf and marbled boards. Internally fresh and near fine. Castiglioni (1757-1832), a young Italian count, was the first Italian traveller in the American South. His narrative is an important overview of the United States for the time, especially for agricultural and botanical information. He was especially interested in rice culture, and is credited with importing several varieties back to Italy. The first part of the work describes the author's journey through the eastern states (Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire), as well as a brief visit to Canada. The second part is comprised of an important alphabetized description of selected flora of the United States. Castiglioni's route of travel in the South includes stops in Baltimore, Annapolis, Mount Vernon, Colchester, Dumfries (describing a tobacco warehouse there), Fredericksburg, Richmond (describing planters, persimmons, peaches, black slaves, etc.), Petersburg (a visit with John Banister, the plantation of Capt. Walker), Charleston, Savannah, Augusta, and Charlottesville (a visit to Monticello, comments on NOTES ON THE STATE OF VIRGINIA). "Castiglioni's purposes in visiting America were to witness the birth of a republic out of diverse people occupying a large area and to study the plants of North America with the particular view of finding species which might be introduced into Europe. He is credited with having imported into Lombardy the locust, which had flourished mightily by the time of his death, the catalpa, and the arbor vitae...The account of Luigi's journey is interrupted, as he leaves a state, by a sort of encyclopedia type of miscellany on the state. For South Carolina, for example, he discourses on history, the districts, John Locke's proposals, government, the inscription on the Pitt monument at Charleston, buildings, churches, trade, climate, and manners (abuse of liquor)...The new Constitution of the United States, given him by Franklin, is reprinted entire, probably its first translation into Italian..." - Clark. The plates are of an iceberg, a plan of Boston, Indian objects, a plan of New York, a plan of Charleston, drawing of three styles of American log fences, a detailed engraving of a rice mill and related processing tools for rice (a particular interest of the author), and figures illustrating the growth and processing of tobacco. There are also several fine natural history plates, including depictions of oak leaves and an acorn, an opossum, the leaf of the "Franklinia altamaha," and a drawing of the sumac. See Clark for further references concerning Castiglioni. An important illustrated account of American travel, often overlooked and quite rare. This is the first copy we have ever handled. HOWES C228. SABIN 11413. CLARK II:84. TAXONOMIC LITERATURE 1055. PRITZEL 1595. SERVIES 664.
(Item ID: WRCAM23880) $7,500.00