AA.VV. - Masovia ovvero Varsavia e contorni - 1993

DESCRIPTION A refined volume belonging to the famous Franco Maria Ricci collection "Guide impossibili" (Impossible Guides), curated by Gianni Guadalupi. Original edition of 1993, in a first limited print run of 5,000 numbered copies. The proposed copy is no. 2328. The volume presents the refined editorial appearance characteristic of the Guide impossibili: original black silk binding with gold titles and a mounted color illustration, numerous color plates, and the original editorial slipcase. SUBJECT OF THE VOLUME The volume is dedicated to Masovia and Warsaw, the historic heart of Poland, reconstructed through the gaze of travelers and the testimonies of the past. As is characteristic of the Guide impossibili series, the territory is not presented according to the model of a modern tourist guide, but through historical texts, travel memoirs, and a rich repertoire of period images, giving the reader the impression of Poland and its capital as experienced by those who visited them in past centuries. At the center of the journey is Warsaw, a city with a complex and turbulent history, but the itinerary extends to the historic region of Masovia, the ancient Polish territory developed around the Vistula valley. Palaces, churches, urban views, customs, figures and landscapes compose the portrait of a Poland observed before the deep transformations of the contemporary era. Texts and images thus transform the volume into a journey into the memory of historic Warsaw and Polish culture, in the refined and deliberately anachronistic formula that distinguishes the entire Franco Maria Ricci publishing line. A work of particular interest for FMR collectors, enthusiasts of Poland and Warsaw, history of Eastern Europe, historical iconography, and travel literature. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS Publisher: Franco Maria Ricci, Milan • Series: Guide impossibili • Title: Palatinato di Masovia • Subtitle: or Warsaw and surroundings • Edited by: Gianni Guadalupi • Year of publication: 1993 • Pages: 201 + 4 unnumbered • First edition • Copy run: 5,000 numbered copies • Copy number: 2328 • ISBN: 88-216-0572-8 • FMR Code: GUI122 • Complete with original editorial slipcase CONDITIONS Volume in excellent condition. Interior clean and well preserved. Original editorial slipcase present and in excellent condition. "The Warsaw of the eighteenth century, capital of a composite kingdom that ruled German merchants of Danzig, the Don Cossacks, and the bears of the Italian forests." "Covered with endless forests inhabited by bison, elk, wild boar and bears, traversed only by rare tracks where the dust choked the air or sank into the mud according to the atmospheric whims, scattered with clusters of huts daring to call themselves cities, and imposing castles of magnates who could ride for hundreds of kilometers in every direction without leaving their lands, inhabited by the most enslaved peasants and the most ostentatious nobles of all Europe, Poland did not become a destination for educated and curious travelers until the second half of the eighteenth century, when Warsaw, tucked among the forests of Masovia, transformed into something like rustic Paris on the Vistula."

Estimate:$55.1

View all items fromCatawikiorBooks, Maps & Manuscripts