(3) Travel Books About Europe and the Middle East From the 1800s. 

Size: (largest) 7 7/8 X 5 7/8 X 1 in. 

This lot consists of three travel books: Superficial Glimpses of Travel by I. P. Huston, Mornings in Florence by John Ruskin, and The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red Sea & Gennesareth by J. Macgregor, all from the 1800’s. Superficial Glimpses of Travel has gilt lettering on the spine, gilt lettering and gilt decorations  on the front cover, blank endpapers, the title page says it was published in Philadelphia in 1888 by Porter & Coates, it has a one-page Preface, two pages of Contents, 256 pages of text, and the top edge is gilt. The book offers descriptions and reflections on various cities and landmarks in Europe, from the bustling streets of Paris to the landscapes of the Italian lakes, and it provides a unique perspective on the art, architecture, and daily life of 19th-century Europe. She writes about Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice, London and Edinburgh, along others, and it is a first edition, according to WorldCat. Isabella Pennock Huston (1822-1889) went on an eight-month travel journey to France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England, and Scotland, and wrote of her experiences in this book, and it was unusal for journeys to be undertaken or written by a woman like this in the 1800’s. The Huston book measures 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches wide and is in very good condition, with a tight binding and clean pages and text, faint shadows on the front and rear endpapers, faint brown spots along the edges of a few pages at the rear, and a wisp of wear at the tips, and we only found eleven copies of this title in Special Collections around the world, per WorldCat. Mornings in Florence was written by John Ruskin and published by The Mershon Company. The book has a decorated spine and front cover, decorated endpapers, a frontis portrait of Ruskin, a decorated title page which says the Mershon Company was located in New York and Rahwah, New Jersey, the copyright page has no date, but the book was published around the turn of the century, there is one page of Contents, a two-page Preface, the text runs from page 7 to 232, and the top edge is gilt. John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) was an English polymath who wrote on subjects, such as art, architecture, political economy, education, geology, botany, ornithology, literature, history,    and myth: a polymath was an individual whose knowledge spanned many subjects and drew on complex bodies of knowledge to solve problems. Mornings in Florence was his treatise on Venetian architecture and art, focusing primarily on the Gothic and Renaissance architecture  of the city. Ruskin idealized Gothic architecture and believed the Renaissance style was in decline from the moral and aesthetic heights of the Gothic period. He argued that Renaissance architecture lacked the spiritual and functional qualities of Gothic, which reflected the values of a vibrant faith-based society. The Mershon Company went from being a printer to a publisher in the late 1890’s. They began publishing books under their own imprint in 1899, after they acquired the stock and plates of bankrupt companies like Cassell & Co. and Merriam Co. The Ruskin book measures 6 3/4 x 4 5/8 inches wide and is in good condition, with a tight binding and clean pages and text for the most part, with faint brown spots on a couple of pages and a note in red pen in the margin on page 85, the spine is dark and there is wear on the crown and along the edges, and modest wear at the tips. The Rob Roy on the Jordon, Nile, Red Sea, & Gennesareth was written by J. MacGregor and has five raised bands with six gilt-ruled compartments and gilt lettering and gilt decorations on the spine, gilt borders on the front cover, marbled endpapers, the blank flyleaf in front is inscribed 1877, followed by a colored frontis which depicts natives being captured by the Arabs of Hooleh, then a protective tissue guard; the title page says the book is a canoe cruise in Palestine and Egypt and the waters of Damascus, which is in Syria, the book is the fifth edition, with illustrations and maps, and it was published in London in 1876 by John Murray. (The first edition was published in 1869, according to WorldCat.) The book is dedicated to the commodore of the Royal Canoe Club and the dedication page says the book is a record of the Rob Roy’s cruise on ancient rivers, lakes, and seas in Bible Lands, so the Rob Roy appears to be a canoe that carried the author throughout the Middle East; there are four pages of Contents ( vii - x), a three-page list of Illustrations, seven fold-out maps, the text runs to page 409, an appendix at the end runs to 426, all the edges are gilt, and all the illustrations, maps and color plates are present. The book measures 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches wide and is in very good condition, except for the front cover, which is nearly detached. (It’s still attached by a few cords.) The binding is still tight, the text and maps and illustrations are very clean, the four color plates present really well, and there’s light wear at the heel and crown and at the tips. The Huston book is rare - we found only one first edition listed on the rare book website we use and a single modern reprint - and only five copies of the Rob Roy on the Jordan.