MARC Record view

001 $ 05/3604
003 $ UK-LoRAA
005 $ 20230411161541.4
041 0 # $a eng
044 # # $a uk
100 1 # $a Baretti
245 1 2 $a A Guide Through The Royal Academy, By Joseph Baretti Secretary For Foreign Correspondence To The Royal Academy.
260 # # $a London: $b Printed By T. Cadell, Printer To The Royal Academy. [Price One Shilling.] $c [1781]
300 # # $a 32 p.; $c 254 mm. (Quarto.)
505 0 # $a [T.p.] - [Text].
508 # # $a 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).
510 4 # $a ESTC $c T83915, T228820
520 2 # $a 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.
533 # # $a A copy of this publication has been digitised by the Getty Research Institute and made available online via the Internet Archive digital library: https://archive.org/details/guidethroughroya12bare/page/n7/mode/2up
561 # # $a First copy: Presented by Harry Buxton Forman in 1907.
563 # # $a 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.
610 2 4 $a Royal Academy of Arts (London)
610 2 4 $a Courtauld Institute of Art (London)
653 # # $a Casts (sculpture) - Paintings - Architecture - Interior decoration - Academies - Great Britain - London - Somerset House - History - 18th century
655 # 0 $a Guidebooks - Great Britain - London - 18th century
700 1 # $a cadell $e printer
700 1 # $a Buxton Forman, Harry $e donor
700 1 # $a Johnson, Samuel $e author
710 2 # $a Royal Academy of Arts (London). Secretary for Foreign Correspondence