Aurora Leigh by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett - 1872

Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1872. Popular edition of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's ambitious exploration of female artistry, first published in London in 1856, in a hand-painted vellum binding. The story of the aspiring writer Aurora Leigh established Browning's own place in the literary canon: "The world of books is still the world." The iconography of this striking binding, with its foliate designs and rampant lion, reflects Aurora's Florentine origins. The binder's ticket is that of Giulio Giannini, who specialized in attractive souvenirs of Italy for arts-minded English tourists. His firm, still active today, did a brisk trade in "Florentine Style" bindings on English-language classics set in Italy: Hawthorne's The Marble Faun, Eliot's Romola, Howells's Tuscan Cities, and, of course, Aurora Leigh. A fine copy of Browning's landmark verse novel, in a unique hand-painted binding by Giannini. Single volume, measuring 6.25 x 4.5 inches: [9], 10-334, [4]. Contemporary vellum hand-painted in gilt, green, and red; gilt-ruled beveled boards and spine; rampant lion with shield to front board; foliate decorations to spine and rear board; gold floral endpapers; top edge trimmed, others uncut. Binder's ticket of Giulio Giannini to verso of front free endpaper. Green silk bookmark. Housed in custom half-vellum clamshell box.