Mar Mediterraneo - France; J.Howard / J. Basire / W.Eyres - MARSEILLE. Plan des Infirmeries, ou Lazaret de la Ville de Marseille - 1781-1800

MARSEILLE. Plan of the Infirmaries, or Lazaret of the City of Marseille

J.Basire sculpsit

Tratta da: An account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe; with various papers relative to the Plague: Together with further Observations on some foreign Prisons and Hospitals [...], by JOHN HOWARD, Published in Warrington, Printed by William Eyres; And sold by T. Cadell, J. Johnson, C. Dilly, and J. Taylor in London, 1789.

Beautiful topographic drawing of the vanished Lazaretto of Saint-Martin d'Arenc in the port of Marseille: built in 1663, it was enlarged several times by virtue of its use for the quarantine of travelers sick with plague, cholera, and yellow fever.

French title at the top center above the mise-en-scène, with a double explanatory legend of the architectural elements depicted; at the bottom right the plan and legend of the new lazzeretto on the island of Pomègues, five miles from Marseille, where infected vessels passed quarantines.

Copperplate engraving on nineteenth-century paper, blank verso, good margins (the upper one slightly trimmed), usual editorial folds, small age-related restorations, sporadic traces of oxidation.

Slightly yellowed specimen, but rare and fascinating.

Dim.: 35.5 x 47 cm the printing sheet

JOHN HOWARD (1726-90) is remembered as the first reformer of English prisons: a Londoner, son of a wealthy cloth merchant, from early life did not enjoy good health. He studied at the dissenting academy of John Eames in London (the dissenting academies were run by people who proposed educational standards not conforming to the Anglican church). Upon his father's death he received a substantial inheritance and set off traveling across the continent; he was even captured by French pirates and imprisoned at Brest: from there he focused on his inclination toward the study of prisons and the living conditions of prisoners. His social commitment from then on was constant, such that in ’56 he earned a prize from the Royal Society of London. But he would not have only joys: his wife died in childbirth and that son would not be lucky, leading a difficult life and dying in an asylum at 34.

In ’73 he became sheriff of Bedfordshire and personally visited the prisons, naturally appalled by what he saw: he raised the issue in Parliament receiving public praise for his humanity. In ’77 appeared “The State of the Prisons,” a pioneering work that opened the way to numerous improvements in the living conditions of detainees. Not satisfied, he continued to travel throughout Europe inspecting prisons and collecting prizes and recognitions; of ’89 is his account of the most important lazarettos scattered across Europe. The last stay, in Ukraine, would prove fatal: he contracted typhus while visiting a prison; he was 63 and was buried in a town on the Black Sea. News of his death made worldwide headlines: countless posthumous honors, coinage, statues (one inside St. Paul’s in London), honorary degrees. His moral legacy in modern times is substantial: numerous associations, hospitals and charitable institutions in Great Britain and the United States bear his name and carry forward his innovations in prison and penal reforms.

James Basire (1730-1802) was an engraver, son of an artist (we know three generations of Basire engravers, the father a cartographer, the son and James, his namesake grandson); in his London workshop in 1772 he took the first steps into the fascinating world of the figurative arts. William Blake, a visionary artist, as undervalued in his lifetime as is often the case, made his acquaintance there.