Schevill, Ferdinand. Siena: The Story of a Mediæval Commune. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909. First Edition. [1716]
Brown cloth with gilt titles and black rules, 9 x 6 inches, light wear at the ends & corner tips. Former owner's pencil signature on ffep, xii., 433 clean pp. plus plates. Text remains partially unopened. "J" in crayon or red pencil to spine. Good. Hardcover.
"I have not written a political history of Siena. To be sure, I have dealt with the political evolution of the commune, but only as one, though and important, phase of the larger problem of its civilization. On this point, on the civilization of Siena, I have concentrated all my efforts. Starting with the simple fact that this town in southern Tuscany, in the period of its freedom, erected for its comfort and delight a diversified, engaging, and wholly distinctive house of life, I determined to illuminate this attractive edifice from as large a number of angles as possible....By isolating for examination the nobles, the clergy, the merchants, and other classes of the commonwealth, by following separately the developments of public and private life, by reviewing the achievements of the various arts, I have, as it were, delivered to my reader the small colored cubes, which of their own accord should fall into suitable relations, achieving the end I had in view - as complete a mosaic of Sienese culture as was possible within the compass of a single volume." - Preface.