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KELSALL, Charles.
Classical Excursion from Rome to Arpino.
First edition. The Eton and Cambridge-educated Kelsall (1782–1857) adopted the life of a travelling scholar, publishing the fruits of his labours privately, such as his translation of Cicero's The Last Two Pleadings … Against Caius Verres (1812), with a postscript arguing that Sicily was in need of drastic modernization along liberal and democratic lines. His chief interest was architecture, holding the Greek Doric style as the best model for a reformed modern architecture. He himself designed buildings in various styles, including models for university buildings, and argued for a wider university syllabus, to be followed by a world tour. In this work Kelsall published designs for a monument to Cicero in the Amalthea at Arpino, having been amazed to discover that none existed there. (He later renamed his Hampshire house the Villa Amalthea, setting up busts of poets and scholars in the garden.) The work is characteristically wide-ranging and digressive, causing one early reader to comment in pencil at the foot of page 189, after a lengthy digression On the different opinions which have been formed of Cicero: "What have these 59 pages to do with a classical excursion?"
Large octavo. Original boards, skilfully rebacked to style in calf, gilt bands, black morocco label, edges uncut. Large folding engraved frontispiece after Kelsall, 3 engraved plates, litho plate. Printed on thick paper. Circulating library plate of Acton Reading Society (South Gloucestershire) to pastedown, with manuscript entries dated 1822; pencil ownership inscription of F. R. Cowell, with acquisition date January 1958, to an early blank; few pencil marginalia in text. Board edges a little worn, but an excellent copy, clean and fresh, with untrimmed edges.
