Les Villanelles, de Joseph Boulmier avec ses poésies en langage du XVe siècle
Paris: Isidore Liseux 1879. Second Edition. [4], 140 pages plus 12 etching proofs as frontispieces. Bound in full vellum (4 x 6 inches) with title, author, and date hand decorated on the spine with flourishes. Marbled endpapers. Original wrappers bound in including the spine panel here found affixed to it's own tab. Not only a nice binding job, but a nice piece of book art production. The various etching proofs are in various colors and paper qualities (perhaps showing what was possible at the time?). A few penciled notations indicating this was once in a library, otherwise quite clean. Near Fine. vellum. [24498]
One of only 25 copies with 12 etching proofs bound in before the title page. The half-title has a manuscript note below it stating :"Avec douze épreuve de l'Eau-forte, Vingt-cinq exemplaires numérotés No. 3"
"A villanelle (also known as villanesque) is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines." (wikipedia)
Price: $250.00