Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/91

 12 S. III. FEB. 3, 1917.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

bigger the bet[ter]; if you cangett any, they may turn to a good A[ccount]. If you h[a]ve not disposed of the breed* be please[d] to sell [it] for anything rather then lett itt [lie] unsold. Mr Billinslyf hath bin sick of A fever [a] month or 6 weekes, but is now recovered pretty well. When you send to Mr March present my humble service to him, remembring not more at pres[ent]

Remaine Your Reall Loving Fri[end]

JOHN VICKERS

[Endorsed] To Mr Richard Edwards Merchant

In Cassumbazar

[In Richard Edwards' s writing] Reed, the 16th September

R. C. TEMPLE. (To be continued.)

SOME EARLY GUIDE-BOOKS TO NAPLES AND THE VICINITY.

AMONG a parcel of odd books which passed through my hands recently were a number of old Italian travel books, including some seventeenth- and eighteenth-century guide- books to Naples and the surrounding country-. I found them particularly in- teresting, but my attempts to learn some- thing of their history were not very success- ful. They are all at the British Museum, and must have been common enough at one time, but, like other guide-books, they no doubt lost their interest as they got out of date, and were thrown aside and forgotten. The two works noticed here are possibly quite familiar to readers of ' N. & Q.,' but [ have not seen them before, and cannot find that any one has written about them. My copies are not first editions, but I have examined the earlier issues at the British Museum, and give in each case the titles and dates of the first editions.

The two works I propose to notice are as follows :

I. Sarnelli, Porapeo, " Guida de' Forestieri curiosi di vedere, e d'intendere le cose piii notabili della Regal Citta di Napoli, e del suo amenissimo Dis- tietto In Napoli, 1685," 12. (Subsequent edi- tions 1692, 1697, 1713, 1772, 1782, 1788.1

II. Sarnelli, Pompeo, " Guida de'. Forastieri

curiosi di vedere le cose piu memorabili di Poz-

zuoli, Baja, Miseno, Cuma, ed altri luoghi convicini

a dialect spelling, s.v. ' Braid.'
 * Braid. " Breed " occurs in the ' N.E.D.' as

t John Billingsley, who entered the Company's ervice at the same time as Richard Edwards, will noticed later.

In Napoli, 1685," 12" 10. [Subsequent editions

1688, 1691, 1770, 1782, 1784, 1801. French editions (translation by Bulifon) 1702 and 1784.]

It may be mentioned here that Sariielli had already been concerned in another work on. Pozzuoli and the surrounding country, having issued in 1675 ' L'Antichita di Pozzuolo [sic] di Ferrante Loffredo,' 4to (see list of Sarnelli's works in I.).

Of the author himself there is not much to relate. He was born in 1649, and died in 1724. He became Bishop of Bisceglia^ and was the author of a number of works^ literary, historical, ecclesiastical, and poeti- cal, as well as topographical, a list of which is to be found in the first and most of the- subsequent editions of I. He was assisted in his guide-books by Antonio Bulifon, a historian and antiquary of Italian birth and French origin, who resided at Naples during the later half of the seventeenth century, and was regarded as a competent authority upon all questions concerning that city. (See Misson, ' Voyage of Italy,' English translation, 1714, ii. 678.) There is a por- trait of him prefixed to his ' Lettere memo- rabili,' 1693, vol. i. His name appears on the title-page of all the earlier editions of I. and II., and he seems also to have engaged in publishing and bookselling. He was not actually the publisher of Sarnelli's guide- books, but the first editions of I. and II. have the following note : " A spese di Antonio Bulifon"; and several of the Bishop's other works were printed or pub- lished by him.

My copy of this book is the edition of 1697, which differs only slightly from the earlier issues. Following the dedication is a kind of preface and justification for the work, ' Antonio Buhfon al curioso Lettore.' Then comes the catalogue of Sarnelli's publications referred to above, and Book I. commences with an account of the origin of the city and its foundation at a date one hundred and seventy years after the sack of Troy. The modern city is next described, followed by a chapter on its fortresses, castles, fountains, and other buildings, and Book I. then closes with an account of the tribunals and the administration of justice.

Book II. opens with a description of the churches and hospitals of Naples, occupying some 250 pages, and closes with an account of the most notable places and churches outside the walls. (This latter part is called Book III. in the first edition.) This portion of the book, though occupying 'no more than 70 pages, comes as something of a relief after the interminable catalogue^!