BOSWELL (James). An Account of Corsica, the journal... Lot 13

BOSWELL (James). An Account of Corsica, the journal of a tour to that island ; and memoirs of Pascal Paoli. Glasgow, printed by Robert and Andrew Foulis for Edward and Charles Dilly, in [...] London ; 1768. In-8, xxi-(3 of which the first and last are blank)-382 pp. pale brown half calf marbled with corners, spine ribbed with garnet title-piece (Bayntun. binder. Bath. Eng). FIRST EDITION. Copper-engraved illustration: fold-out map of Corsica outside the text, drawn by Thomas Phinn after the one published by Bernard-Antoine Jaillot in 1738; vignette in the text to the title, with the arms of the Kingdom of Corsica. "AN ESSENTIAL TESTIMONY ON CORSICA AT THE TIME OF PAOLI'S GOVERNMENT" (Francis Beretti). The son of a Scottish Supreme Court judge, the Scottish lawyer and writer James Boswell (1740-1795) visited Voltaire and Rousseau on his Grand Tour, the traditional stopover for the children of high society in the British Isles. It was clearly Rousseau, author of a draft constitution for Corsica, who inspired his desire to visit the island, an unusual detour for a Grand Tour. He went there in October 1765, met Pasquale Paoli for eight days at Sollacarò, and, impressed by the latter, embarked on a press campaign in support of the island's cause. So he wrote the present Account, in which he recounts his stay in Corsica, develops a geographical and historical presentation of the island, with lengthy developments on modern Corsica in political, economic and anthropological terms. The work met with immense success, being published in several editions, translated throughout Europe, and distributed in excerpts in periodicals: indeed, a few years after the end of the Seven Years' War, the first achievements of Paoli's government and the occupation of the island by the French aroused the curiosity of the public and the interest of thinkers such as Rousseau. James Boswell won fame in this way, and above all helped to create a current of sympathy for Pasquale Paoli in enlightened Europe. James Boswell kept in touch with Paoli, seeing him for the last time in London in 1790. BOSWELL'S VIEW OF CORSICA: "A MODEL UTOPIA [...] WHERE THE ANCIENT IDEALS OF LIBERTY, PATRIOTISM AND VERTUITY REVEALED": "The Scottish traveler fulfilled the expectations of enlightened minds throughout [Europe]. On reading the Relation de Corse, they found themselves transported by Boswell as if in a time machine, to an island in the Mediterranean where they saw reincarnated a classical ideal of liberty, patriotism and virtue, the decline of which they deplored in their own homes of civilization [...]. The years 1764-1769, corresponding to Boswell's voyage and the publication of his bestseller, are therefore crucial in the history of Corsica, an island that represented a diplomatic, political and military issue between Genoa, France and Great Britain. But it was also a philosophical issue in the context of the Enlightenment, as those years were also significant in the history of the island's representation to the centers of civilization in Northern Europe. Thanks to a powerful imaginary effect inspired in large part by Rousseau, who dreamed of becoming the Corsican schoolteacher, and thanks to Boswell, who dared to undertake the journey, Corsica emerged from the shadows and appeared for the first time as a model utopia, a new republic, a new Sparta, where the ancient ideals of freedom, patriotism and virtue were revived in a century and in capitals where these ideals had deteriorated. By going to Corsica, Boswell and his traveling companions literally stray from the beaten path of the Grand Tour, and figuratively too, insofar as they express a remarkable inversion of the stereotypes hitherto applied to islanders. A spectacular reversal of values has taken place. The obscurity of Corsican history is no longer the mark of their backwardness, but rather the sign of their virtue" (Francis Beretti). Provenance: Colonel and Member of Parliament George Henry Lennox, son of the Duke of Richmond and descendant of King Charles II (handwritten bookplate). - Xavier Versini (triple ex-libris: his signature on the title and p. 11, and his initials on p. 26).