8vo., publisher's brown cloth with a wonderful front-cover brass-stamped design of the frame of a draped window looking out onto a balcony on which there are flowers and butterflies. The design is achieved in gilt with applied onlays of yellow, green, red, blue and white. The rear cover design is much smaller and simpler being stamped in gilt with green onlay; the spine is quite elaborate and the onlays used are pink, blue and green. There is some slight rubbing to the very ends of the spine and tips of the corners, and the front free endleaf is lacking. A VERY HANDSOME BINDING.The book runs the gamut of Italian heroes from Julius Cæsar to Camillo Cavour. There are 32 pages of publisher's ads at the end, the last leaf of which has been repaired.A very fine example from the Italian side of the Alps of what Sophie Mallavielle studied in her book, Reliures et cartonnages d'éditeur en France au XIXe siècle (1815-1865). Far rarer than French examples of this type of publisher's decorative bindings.