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One of the great female travelogues of the eighteenth century, by the feisty Lady Craven, dramatist, writer, traveller and socialite, said to have been the first woman ever to have descended into the Grotto of Antiparos which is strikingly illustrated on one of the engraved plates. This vivid account of her travels through France, Austria, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Greece are presented in a series of letters to her future husband, the Margrave of Anspach. While in Constantinople, she stayed with the author and collector Choiseul-Gouffier and recounts details of her stay there: ‘the Comte de Choiseul’s collection is, perhaps, the only thing in the world of the kind, and he means, when he returns to Paris, to have all the ruins and temples executed in plaster of Paris, or some materials which will copy the marble, in small models; to be place in galleries upon tables’ (Letter XLVI). Her account is also particularly interesting for her commentary as to the behaviour and dress of the women in the different places she visits.

With a large folding map and six delightful plates depicting the source of the River Kaarasou in the Crimea, a Turkish boat, a Turkish burial ground, the Grotto of the Antiparos, Siphanto and the Convent of Panacrado from the Bay of Gabrio. Please note, this copy has a detached front cover.

An important account of Italy written in a series of one hundred and fifteen letters. A good number of subjects is covered in the course of the letters, from economics, social institutions and local customs to the natural and artistic beauty of Italy. Beginning in the south of France and approaching Italy via Geneva, the author works down the country through Lucca, Pisa, Florence, Rome and Naples. Mercier Dupaty was an academician and magistrate, who was responsible for carrying the enlightened ideas of Voltaire and Beccaria into the courts and reforming the French legal system. This work enjoyed a significant popularity, was frequently reprinted and was translated into English in the same year.