Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

Describing the devotions, nunneries, humour, customs, laws, militia, trade, diet, and recreations of that people. intermixt with great variety of modern adventures, and surprising accidents: being the truest and best remarks extant on that court and country. the sixth edition, with the addition of a letter of the state of spain, as it was in the year 1700. never before in english. in three parts.

Item Description

8vo. 4.5 x 6.75 inches. [iv] + 296 + [2] pp. publisher's advertisements. Lacks 2nd page of advertisements.

Illustrations

Bound in original calf with blind stamped borders; spine rebacked with raised bands with new contrasting title label. Browning of pages throughout but otherwise a very good copy.

Notes

A relation of life and travels in Spain written in the form of fifteen letters. This Sixth Edition of 1706 contains an additional sixteenth letter describing the present state of Spain in the year 1700. It was published anonymously, but the the author is generally considered to be Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baronesse or Comtesse d' Aulnoy (1650/51-1705), who had an eventful life, being involved on the fringes of several scandals (her husband was imprisoned in the Bastille on a charge of treason for three years) and possibly also serving as a spy for France. She was a prolific author and has been credited with inventing the genre of the fairy tale (apparently her stories were quite unsuitable for children!). These and particularly her travel memoirs (there was also one concerning England) were her most popular writings. Doubt has been cast upon their authenticity or originality, but at the time they were valued principally for their entertainment value, with detailed accounts of individuals, of female costume and the contents of the rooms she visited. This Sixth Edition is scarce, with library copies recorded only in Oxford, Leeds and Edinburgh (and one each in the US and Australia). The