Dante.
Inferno. Cinquante-cinq eaux-fortes de Barta.
Paris: Editions de la Cigogne / Jacques Klein, 1938.
A beautiful edition of Dante's Inferno (Italian text).
Illustrated with 55 extremely disturbing original etchings, almost all full-page and hors-texte, by Hungarian-Jewish artist Laszlo Barta.
Edition limited to 275 numbered copies of which this is one of 200 printed on fine Rives wove paper.
THIS COPY, EXCEPTIONALLY, INCLUDES THE ORIGINAL COPPER PLATE OF ONE OF THE ETCHINGS.
Folio. Loose as issued in original wraps, with board chemise and slipcase. A tiny bit of faint foxing, else FINE AND BRIGHT.
A rare and fascinating illustrated edition of the Inferno, likely made even rarer by the fact that both the illustrator and the publisher were Jewish, and it was issued in France on the eve of the Second World War.
