Henry Swinburne — Travels in the Two Sicilies

London, Printed by J. Nichols for T. Cadell, and P. Elmsly , 1790. Leather. Scientist Mary Anne Whitby's personal copies of the complete second edition of this comprehensive Sicily travelogue from English writer Henry Swinburne, with folding plates. The second edition. Complete in four volumes.Uniformly bound in half calf, with marbled boards.Illustrated with a folding genealogical table of the sovereigns of the Two Sicilies, folding map and twenty-two folding plates and plans, including two panoramas of Palermo and Messina. Collated, complete. This work recounts Henry Swinburne's travels in Sicily (at that time known as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies) from 1777-1780, preceding his journey with a short sketch of the history of Naples and interweaving his observations of the inhabitants, topography and culture with societal and historical context throughout. Swinburne was an English travel writer whose accounts of journeys around Europe have been widely translated. Each volume is inscribed to the title page head by celebrated amateur scientist Mary Anne Theresa Whitby, who is credited with helping Charles Darwin with information that aided his work on evolution. Her connection with Italy is well documented, and central to her life story, as it was in Italy that she became interested in breeding silkworms, which eventually led to her conducting "experiments on Darwin"s behalf" and sending specimens to Darwin: Uniformly bound in half calf, with marbled boards. Externally, with rubbing to the extremities and fading to the spines. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are generally bright and clean, with tide marks to the endpapers and scattered spots to the first and last couple leaves. Contemporary ownership inscription to the title pages. Good . Ill.: Not Stated. Good .