Utopia.- Dossi (Carlo)

La Colonia Felice. Utopia, FIRST EDITION, half title, errata leaf at rear (slightly torn), light browning, some foxing throughout, contemporary half calf over marbled boards, corners restored with vellum, gilt lettering piece to spine, rubbed, 4to, Perelli, Milan, 1874.

*** Scarce edition issued in 200, of which only 74 for distribution (and printed on thick paper). Count Alberto Carlo Pisani Dossi (1849-1910), was an Italian writer, diplomat and archaeologist, and an important representative of the Milanese Scapigliatura. The Happy Colony is a short Utopian novel based on the author's ideas of justice, including the Prison Debate. In the Sommaruga edition of 1883 Dossi disavowed the philanthropic theses on which the work was based (that evil could teach good; that justice could proceed from utility etc.). Copy unusually complete with errata leaf.