Travels in the Island of Iceland, During the Summer of the Year 1810

4to [27.5 x 22 cm]; xx, 491, [i, directions to binder] pp, 3 maps, including frontis, another folding & hand colored, 4 folding tables, 14 plates including 8 hand colored aquatints, some foldout, other engravings , sheet of music, complete, index. contemporary half leather, marbled boards and edges, gilt title lettering on black leather spine label, joints cracked but firm, internal hinge reinforced, minor foxing on a few margins but mostly quite clean, interior near fine. A picture of this book is Abbey Travel 160. The attractive hand colored plates are aquatints and are mounted as issued (see Abbey). Tooley (English Colour Plate Books) 313. The plates include views, caldron of boiling mud, geysers, costume, view of Reikiavik, other towns, etc. The author travelled with Henry Holland and Richard Bright, who each contributed chapters. The text includes narratives of three excursions, descriptions of the state of education, literature, laws, government, religion, commerce, as well as zoology, botany, mineralogy, mineral waters, with several appendices giving further details. The second edition of 1812 was somewhat abridged. 'Contains much information of permanent interest on the social and economic condition of Iceland' [DNB].