CHAMBERS, Osborne William Samuel. Garibaldi and Italian Unity. London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1864.
8vo. Original purple textured cloth, Garibaldi holding a banner gilt-stamped on front cover (repeated on gilt-lettered spine); pp. viii, 328; spine faded, lower cover a bit discoloured; otherwise very good; presentation inscription, signed by the author, to the Countess of Caithness on front fly-leaf.
First edition, scarce, of a monograph of Garibaldi, written whilst the Italian unification process was still unfolding. Chambers, a Lieutenant-Colonel with the army had been to Italy and collected first-hand reports, among them much information on the battle of Aspromonte, where Garibaldi was wounded and which halted the unification for a while and ended with a cease-fire.
Provenance: The Countess of Caithness 'Marie Sinclair (née de Mariategui; other married name de Medina Pomar; 1830–1895), who was created suo jure duchess of Pomar in the papal nobility in 1879 by Pope Leo XIII, was prominent in spiritualist circles, being vice-president of the British National Association of Spiritualists; she also founded the first Theosophical Society in France in 1884. Notable for her attempts to reconcile theosophy, spiritualism, and Catholicism, on which she published a book in 1876, she died at her house, 124 avenue Wagram, Paris, on 3 November 1895' (ODNB).
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