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Other Baedeker publications

30 Oct 2007

As you probably know, the Baedeker house published many volumes other than those covered on this site, mostly on scientific subjects. Sometimes these turn up on eBay or in antiquarian bookshops but most of them are so disconnected from the travel sector that collectors of the guidebooks are no more interested than they would be in any other old volumes.

However, there are two quite interesting books on eBay right now, here and here. These are the German (1891) and French (1893) editions (there was an English one, too, in 1896) of a two-volume work by Wolfgang Helbig, being a detailed guide to the public museums and collections of classic antiquities in Rome. They were complements to the 1890's guides to Central Italy and Rome (and were mentioned in their literature lists).

The books are not in the red travel guide binding, which is, I suppose, why they do not tend to appear in listings of Baedeker's travel guides (not on this site either - yet). However, they are at least as related, I would say, as the vocabularies and grammars, so maybe they ought to be included?

Be that as it may, they are worth a look and, though I understand they are not fantastically rare, I haven't seen them before.

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