Cristina: Portraits of a Princess.

New York:: Alfred A Knopf, 1977.. 1st Edition, so stated.. Hardbound . BINDING/CONDITION: mustard-gold boards with black cloth at the spine; a faint remainder stamp on the top edge of the text block, otherwise a Near Fine book, with a Very Good dust jacket; publisher's price on the jacket flap is intact.. 8vo (about 9.75 inches tall) . Notes, bibliography, index. Description: Frontis portrait plus a short section of black and white plates. The publisher's blurb reads: ''In this major biography, one of the most extraordinary and celebrated figure of the nineteenth century, Princess Cristina Belgiojoso, is rediscovered after decades of neglect. A great beauty, born to Italian aristocracy, married to a profligate prince, at twenty she abandoned her husband and fled to Paris, arriving there penniless in 1831. Within months she had captured the imagination of the city's artists, poets, politicians. Femme fatale, emissary to heads of state, gifted advocate of ideas and causes, the Princess soon became symbol of independent womanhood and revolutionary politics. Her salon was a gathering place for the leading figures of the Romantic era. Despite chronic illness, she became an intrepid traveler, a brilliant journalist, an accomplished artist. She pleaded the Italian cause before kings and ministers, organized hospital services during the siege of Rome, wrote voluminously on politics, history and theology.''