A View of Society and Manners in Italy: with Anecdotes relating to some Eminent Characters.

London: W. Strahan & T. Cadell, 1783.. 2 vols. 8vo. (20 x 12 cm). pp. xv + 518; xii + 502. Later, nineteenth century, blue cloth binding with gilt lettering on spine, sprinkled edges. Ex libris Nottingham Public Libraries with their labels to front covers of both volumes, shelf numbers in gilt to spines and occasional ink stamps to contents. Upper joint of vol.1 cracked but firm, extremities of spines chipped. In 1779 John Moore (1729�1802) published A View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany, in two volumes; this proved immensely popular, going through twenty-one editions in his lifetime. In 1781 he published a sequel, A View of Society and Manners in Italy, in two volumes, which was equally popular. These works are arranged in a series of letters, and relate in an informal style the observations of Moore's travels with the duke of Hamilton. Some of his most frequently excerpted passages were his accounts of visits to the ageing Voltaire at Ferney. Equally notable were his conversations at Potsdam with Frederick the Great, a ruler virtually inaccessible to British visitors. The letters from Vienna featured accounts of the empress and her son, Joseph II, as well as a description of the fabulous estate of Esterhaza. Moore's description of Venice includes a lengthy digression on the rise and fall of that powerful city-state. There is an amusing account of the visit the duke and he paid to the pope. At Florence they often saw Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his still attractive spouse. These volumes earned Moore a considerable reputation. His principal friends at this time were Edmund Burke, the MP John 'Fish' Craufurd, the duke and duchess of Devonshire (who obtained a clerkship in the Foreign Office for his son Francis), Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the duke of Hamilton, who was like another son in the household. On 30 May 1784 he met Samuel Johnson; he recorded their conversation in his preface to an edition of Smollett's works.' (ODNB) "Standard tour, beginning at Venice, in 1775-76, at the end of a general continental tour. Moore travelled as governor to the Duke of Hamilton and to his own son, later Lieut.-Gen. Sir John Moore. This is one of the most sober and well balanced views of Italy published in the eighteenth century. Six editions to 1795" (Pine-Coffin). (Pine-Coffin, 775.3)