Author: [BERTOLDI, Giuseppe ? or Jakob Bartholdy?]
Title: Memoirs of the Secret Societies of the South of Italy, particularly the Carbonari.
Description: London, John Murray 1821. Octavo contemporary calf (front hinge neatly repaired); xvi,235pp and 12 lithographs by Hullmandel, seven folding including a charming large folding view of a meeting shrouded in smoke or mist. A few spots, a nice fresh copy with half title. ¶ First edition; it was written in French, a second language for the author, with the view of being translated and published in London. The attribution to Giuseppe Bertoldi is unlikely as far as I can see; the Risorgimento poet was barely born when this appeared. German librarians confidently ascribe the book to Jakob Ludwig Salomon Bartholdy - the Prussian Consul-General in Rome - and other librarians have attributed it to a Bertoldi without forename.

Keywords: social sciences history c19th Italy politics reform progress