BOCCACCIO, Giovanni; John Payne, transl; Clara Tice, illus

The Decameron

New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925. First Thus. First printing. Regular issue, of 2000 copies "signed" by the publisher. Two large octavo volumes (27cm). In the original black wallet-edged cloth boards, titled in gilt on spines with gilt portrait medallion to each front cover; page edges uncut; xxix, [1]- 374pp; x, [2]-355, [1] p.; ill., port.; 24 leaves of pictorial plates (halftones, after Tice's original etchings) in each volume, not reckoned in pagination. Mild sunning to spines; faint vertical reading crease to spine of v.I; still a tight, clean, Near Fine set. Vol. II contains essays on Boccaccio by Richard Garnett, Sir Walter Raleigh and Prof. W.P. Ker.

A somewhat typical "luxury edition" for the mass-market bibliophile of the 1920s, complete with a very pronounced (and impractical) wallet fore-edge on the boards. Made desirable, however, by the really charming illustrations by Tice, which manage to capture the eroticism of Boccacio without overstepping the bounds of Comstockian decency (something of an accomplishment, given the history of frequent run-ins between the Boni brothers and the New York Society for the Prevention of Vice). There was a simultaneous deluxe issue of 12 copies with original etchings.

Price: $200.00

Go Back