Il Mar Baltico e le sue coste descritti e illustrati con alcune carte geografiche topografiche ed orografiche per la guerre d'Oriente.Triest, Colombo Coen, 1854. Large 4to (32.5 x 23.5 cm). With 1 folding map of the Baltic Sea as the frontispiece, 1 military plan of Kronstadt, 15 plates of Finnish, Swedish, Baltic and Russian cities, and 1 small illustration in the text on p. 58. Contemporary half brown cloth, grey paper sides, with the publisher’s front wrapper (for the “seconda edizione”) printed letterpress on pink paper.

131, [1] pp.Italian description of cities along the coasts of the Baltic Sea, mainly in Finland, Sweden, the Baltic states and Russia, published in 1854 in the context of the Crimean War (October 1853 to February 1856). The main reason for this conflict between Russia and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Sardinia, was to prevent Russian expansion to the south as the power of the Ottoman Empire was weakening. An immediate cause for the war was a series of disputes over the rights of Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire (especially Palestine) between the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox Church.The text is illustrated with 15 tinted lithographic views of cities such as Saint Petersburg in Russia, Cristianstadt (Kristianstad) in Sweden, and Ado in Finland, 1 map of the Baltic Sea, and a military ground plan of Kronstadt (a small island near Saint Petersburg). All lithographs, except the map, are signed by V. Stranski and printed by Colombo Coen.The present copy is the first edition of this description of cities in the Baltic region, even though the wrapper-title on the front board says "seconda edizione". What is called the second edition is practically identical to the first and was published in the same year. They appear to have been printed from the same setting, except for the first two leaves of the first quire (the title-page, its verso and the preface, whose verso is blank). WorldCat records only 5 copies of the first and 7 copies of the second.Covers somewhat soiled, very slight foxing throughout, some browning and offsetting in the plates. A rare work with tinted lithographed views of Finnish, Swedish, Baltic and Russian cities.