Details
The Florence Miscellany, Florence: for G[aetano] Cam[biagi], 1785, 8°, FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION AND ASSOCIATION COPY FROM THE LIBRARY OF HORACE WALPOLE, 224pp. pp. 218-20 contain engraved music, late 19th-century calf panelled in blind and with Lord Houghton's gilt-stamped corn sheaf crest.
Provenance
Contains poems by Mrs Piozzi, Bertie Greathead, Robert Merry and William Parsons. The front blank is inscribed at head "For Signor Francesco Gianfigliazzi from Robt. Merry 1785," and further inscribed in Wapole's hand "Sent to me by Sir Horace Mann. H. W. The book was not published but was given in presents by the several authors. Some of the pieces were reprinted in magazines and newspapers." With armorial bookplate of Horace Walpole (1717-97) on rear pastedown and ex libris of Robert, Marquis of Crewe. Robert Merry (1755-98) was a celebrated dilettante who settled at Florence in 1784 and became a member of the Della Cruscan Academy. He returned to London in 1787, and sympathising with the French Revolution visited Paris several times before leaving for America in 1796. He acted in the chief cities in the States and wrote several unsuccessful plays before dying at Baltimore.