An extremely rare first edition of this celebrated guide to Brescia. A work intended for the "cultured outsider," it was conceived to orient visitors to the profound changes that had marked Brescia in the preceding decades: the suppression of religious orders, the decline of illustrious families, the dismemberment and dispersion of many works of art. Some safeguarded by erudite collectors, some relocated to new locations, these testimonies necessitated an updated guide to reflect their new arrangement. Published in 1826, the Nuova guida came out the same year as the sensational discovery of the Winged Victory in the Capitolium, which Brognoli elegantly describes as "a female statue, which appears to represent a victory, and is considered a singular work from the happiest times of Greece." Far beyond its traditional role as a guide, the work stands out for its polemical tone and the author's erudite insight, denouncing the state of decay of numerous monuments and expressing harsh judgments on artistic and architectural choices deemed unfortunate. His invective against the Vanvitellian attic of the Loggia, labeled "a desecration worthy of a sudden precipice," remains memorable.