Miroslav Sasek

When in Rome, Enzo wanted to buy me something memorable. At the Borri Bookshop at Termini Railwaystation we found just the thing: a book called "Rome" by the Chechoslovakian illustrator Miroslav Sasek. The book's beautifully illustrated, and is in French, which I like a lot:

"Voice deux anciens Romains célèbres: César, le conquérant des Gaules, et Auguste, premier empereur romain. Sous son règne, il y a deux mille ans, Rome comptait déjà un million d'habitants." Note that the book was published in 1960 - according to Wikipedia, Rome inhabited 2,743,796 people in december 2009.

When at home, I found out the book's part of a whole geography-series by Sasek, in English, called "This is...".* All with gorgeous 60s illustrations, reissued in the 00s of this century. Again, something to collect!

The Laocoon sculpture, from "This is Rome".

The Trevi Fountain, from "This is Rome".

Illustration from "This is London".

Illustration from "This is Texas".


*
This Is Paris (1959, reissued 2004)
This Is London (1959, reissued 2004)
This Is Rome (1960, reissued 2007)
This Is New York (1960, reissued 2003)
This Is Edinburgh (1961, reissued 2006)
This Is Munich (1961)
This Is Venice (1961, reissued 2005)
This Is San Francisco (1962, reissued 2003)
This Is Israel (1962, reissued 2008))
This Is Cape Canaveral/This Is Cape Kennedy (1963)
This Is Ireland (1964, reissued 2005)
This Is Hong Kong (1965, reissued 2007)
This Is Greece (1966, reissued 2009)
This Is Texas (1967, reissued 2006)
This Is the United Nations (1968)
This Is Washington, D.C. (1969)
This Is Australia (1970, reissued 2009)
This Is Historic Britain (1974, reissued 2008 as This Is Britain)