TOWNSON, Robert. Travels in Hungary, with a short Account of Vienna in the year 1793. London, G. G. & J. Robinson, 1797.
4to. Contemporary tree calf, spine ornamented in gilt, red morocco lettering-piece (expertly re-backed and with restorations); pp. xvii, [2], 506, large folding engraved petrographic map, hand-coloured in outline, engraved frontispiece, 15 engraved plates (a few folding), one engraved table of barometric data; a few plates with offsetting to opposite pages, minimal spotting or browning in places only; Lord Carrington's contemporary engraved armorial bookplate inside front cover, later French bookplate 'L'Olivette' next to it; a very attractive copy.
First edition. 'The best English work respecting Hungary' (Cox I, 168). Townson had studied natural sciences on the Continent and at Edinburgh, and enrolled in 1791 at Göttingen University. 'While in Göttingen he took a year off to travel to Vienna and throughout Austrian Habsburg lands ... He settled again in Shropshire where his Travels in Hungary (1797) was written. This contained pioneering botanical, entomological, and petrographic observations and spirited descriptions of his exploits, including those in the Tatra Mountains and in Slovakian caves. Townson was as well a keen observer of society, detailing the political and social organization of the Habsburg lands and describes the opulent life style of the Viennese, reports on wines (Tokay in particular) and the gastronomy. He listens to a performance of Mozart's Magic Flute in suburban theatre, vistis Prince Esterhazy and other Hungarian magnates and gains a good impression of the country and inhabitants, alongside jotting down his observations on natural history.
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