Drammi Scelti. Ad uso degli studiosi della lingua italiana. 2 vols. - [JAMES PENNETHORNE'S COPY]

Livorno, Glauco Masi, 1822. 8vo. Bound in a splendid full call binding with gilt title-label, richly gilt spine and elaborately gild boards with broad gilt floral borders and gilt, crowned initials to centre (""J. P.""). Edges of boards and all edges gilt. Small damp stain to the lower blank margin and to the top of the first 10 leaves, otherwise internally very nice and clean. With gift-inscription for James Pennethorne from D. Gregory (presumably hos uncle). With lithographed frontispiece portrait of the author. X, 264"" 259 pp.

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A magnificent copy, which has belonged to the famous English architect and planner James Pennethorne, famous for his parks and buildings in central London.""For a period of thirty years in the mid-nineteenth century James Pennethorne was more intimately involved with the planning and building of London than any other major architect. A pupil of John Nash, he took over his teacher's practice and became government architect for the first half of Victoria's reign. He was responsible for the planning of new streets, the laying out of parks, and the design of important public buildings such as the Public Record Office, the west wing of Somerset House, and the Duchy of Cornwall office. It is therefore almost impossible for Londoners to avoid coming into contact with some aspect of his work."" (Cambridge Studies in the History of Architecture).