COLLODI Carlo pseud. de]: LORENZINI Un Romanzo in vapore. Da Firenze a Livorno. Guida storico-umoristoca.

First edition.

Carlo Lorenzini (1826-1890) adopted his pen name of Carlo Collodi in 1856 in memory of his childhood spent in the village of the same name with his aunt and uncle.

Un Romanzo en vapore [A Steam Train Novel] was written to mark the opening of the first railway line between Florence and Livorno, and is a mixture of traveller caricatures and tourist guide.

In his chapter Il Vade-mecum del viaggiatore (The Traveller’s Guide) he gives advice on organising this new means of transport (how to arrive on time, how best to spend a journey with other travellers in a confined space, etc.).

Among the 25 engraved vignettes, the most striking is the first showing characters bowing to a coin; in the text that follows, Lorenzini explains that this is a parody of the famous American saying ‘Time is money’ adapted to fast journeys.

A fine copy, entirely untrimmed.