This two-volume history of Venice was once in the library of Joseph Smith, the British consul at Venice. It was likely purchased by George III in 1761 when he bought the entirety of the 'Bibliotheca Smithiana' for £20,000.
The books are not listed in George's catalogues of his private libraries at Windsor or at Kew Palace, nor are they found on the list of books retained by George IV from the gift of the King's Library (George III's library in Buckingham House) to the British Museum in 1823. However, they appear to have been included in the current Royal Library by 1860.
Due to its binding, it was one of the books selected by Olwen Hedley in the 1960s as a fine example of bookbinding in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Hedley’s ‘Additional Bookbindings’ serve as a supplement to the catalogue of fine bindings compiled in 1893 by the Royal Librarian Richard Rivington Holmes.