Staël-Holstein (Germaine de) Corinne ou l'Italie, 3 vol., first London edition, half-titles occasional spotting, leaves trimmed or uncut, bookplate of the Maxwells of Kirkconnell, New Abbey, featuring the family motto ‘Spero Meliora’, original blue paper wrappers, printed labels, lightly stained, spine ends damaged, preserved within red cloth box, 8vo, M. Peltier, London, 1808 (3) *** Madame de Staël (1755-1817) was a French-Swiss woman of letters and political propagandist. She established her own salon as a centre of progressive intellectual discussions. She greatly influenced European thought and literature with her enthusiasm for German Romanticism. First work's provenance. From the library of Marie Amélie, Princess of Naples and Sicily (1782-1866), and later queen of France, wife of Louis Philippe I. ‘Corinne’, first published in Paris in 1807, was the first of de Stael’s travels in Italy.