London:: Printed By T. Cadell, Printer To The Royal Academy. [Price One Shilling.], [1781]
Physical Description
32 p.; 254 mm. (Quarto.)
Contents
[T.p.] - [Text].
Responsibility Note
The two opening sentences have been attributed to Samuel Johnson on internal evidence (see A. T. Hazen, Samuel Johnson's prefaces and dedications, 1937, pp. 11-12).
References
ESTC, T83915, T228820
Summary Note
Although Baretti's visitors' guide to 'this new Seminary of arts' bears no year of publication (no doubt to maintain confidence in its currency as guidebook), its first appearance can be dated to 1781 on the basis of internal evidence (see Hazen, op. cit., pp. 11-12). At least two different impressions are known, identifiable by press figures 1 or 3 on p. 7.
Baretti begins by expressing the hope that his guide may 'be useful to those who love the Arts, and desire not to love them blindly. I am able to estimate better the deficiency of that kind of knowledge in others, by the difficulty I met in obtaining that information, which I am now desirous to afford.' He describes the architecture and architectural decorations of Chambers's Somerset House, the interior decorations and in-situ paintings and the collection of casts of ancient sculpture.
In 1837 the Royal Academy moved to Trafalgar Square (where it shared a building with the National Gallery), and in 1868 to Burlington House, Piccadilly. Its rooms at Somerset House were afterwards occupied by the Courtauld Institute of Art.
First copy: Presented by Harry Buxton Forman in 1907.
Binding Note
First copy: 20th-century brown cloth-covered boards; spine lettered 'Guide Through The Royal Academy. - Baretti.' and 'R.A.' Bound with two others (the 1781 issue of the annual periodical 'The Exhibition Of The Royal Academy', and 'Description Of The Picture Of The Death Of The Late Earl Of Chatham, dated '178-'). Second copy: In coloured, floral-patterned paper covers.
Casts (sculpture) - Paintings - Architecture - Interior decoration - Academies - Great Britain - London - Somerset House - History - 18th century
Guidebooks - Great Britain - London - 18th century