René Ménard / Théocrite, Leconte de Lisle - Les idylles [1/100] - 1911

First illustrated edition of Leconte de Lisle's translation, 'The Idylls' by Theocritus. It is decorated with 25 wood engravings (including one full-page), printed in color by Jacques, Camille, and Georges Beltrand after the illustrations of René Menard, and with frames drawn by Jacques Beltrand.

Limited edition of 135 numbered copies on paper specially made at the Usines d’Arches by Perrigot-Masure, with 100 reserved for Members of the Société du Livre d’art. This is a nominative copy of René-Jules Thion de La Chaume (1877-1940), a French banker and fencer. (No. 30).

Covered with a saddle-stitched cover, accompanied by a cardboard slipcase, all housed in a slipcase.

The Idylls are a collection of poems by Theocritus, a Greek poet of the 3rd century BC. He is considered the founder of bucolic poetry, which depicts the lives and loves of shepherds in a rural setting.

They consist of 30 pieces of verse, whose form and subject vary. Among them are mime, epic tales, epigrams, and especially eclogues, where shepherds converse or challenge each other through song. The idylls are inspired by the Sicilian poetic tradition, where Theocritus was born, but also by Hellenistic culture, with which he was acquainted through scholarly circles in Alexandria.

Well-preserved copy despite the creased spine, with some pages attached to a thread. A few marks on the double slipcase. Interior impeccable.

René Ménard / Théocrite, Leconte de Lisle
The Idylls
Paris, printed for the Art Society, 1911
146 pages. Complete.
In4 (21x29cm)