Pieroni's Fountain: An Italian Immigrant's Search for Respectability in Victorian Bath - Tapa blanda

Thanks to the number of coaches and tour buses that stop nearby, the fountain on Bath's Terrace Walk is one of the most photographed objects in the city. Few realise, though, that this relic from a forgotten past once stood in an even more prominent position, dispensing water from Bath's hot springs to passers-by. Even fewer know anything of its creator, Stefan Vallerio Pieroni, whose name can still be traced around the base of the fountain. Born in Tuscany in 1819, Pieroni arrived in England at the age of eighteen to seek a living making plaster statuettes. He settled first in London, before moving to Bath, where he went on to play a key role in the city's social, cultural and political life at a pivotal stage in its history. Although almost forgotten today, he was one of the city's most colourful characters. This timely study brings Pieroni and his world vividly to life, introducing us to a city whose turbulence and infighting belies the image of untroubled gentility so often associated with Victorian Bath.

Colin Fisher was born and brought up in Bath but somehow seems to have spent most of his working life in the Midlands. However, sensibly, when he partly retired he returned to Bath. He trained as a historian at university, and did a PhD in Indian history, but now he is using his return to Bath to develop his lifelong interest in the history of the city. Although he has always been a historian at heart he spent most of his career as a university lecturer in business studies and as a management developer. He is currently a part time professor in managerial ethics at Nottingham Trent University. Back in Bath he is a guide at the No1 Royal Crescent Museum and is currently working on an A-Z of polite and impolite life in the eighteenth century Crescent.