François Villon / Jean Dratz - Œuvres - 1943

Beautiful illustrated and numbered edition of this superb poetic and graphic staging by one of the most unique voices of the French Middle Ages, where the lyrical language of the wandering poet meets the dark and expressive imagination of the Belgian illustrator in an artist's book that is both scholarly and popular.

This edition gathers the main texts of Villon — Le Lais, Le Testament, Ballades en jargon, Ballade des pendus, Ballades diverses — in a modernized spelling, accompanied by a discreet critical apparatus and a carefully designed layout.

Villon, a 15th-century poet, embodies the figure of the literate outsider, oscillating between social satire, meditation on death, black humor, and tenderness for the excluded.

In language, blending slang, Latinisms, and popular expressions, it gives voice to the underworld of Paris while engaging with the courteous and religious tradition.

Jean Dratz, known for his press illustrations and atmospheric drawings, translates this tension into black and white compositions, where the figures are angular, the nocturnal settings are stark, and the faces marked by poverty or derision.

His images extend Villon's poetry by emphasizing its theatricality, contained violence, and tragic humanity.

François Villon / Jean Dratz - Works - 1943 - Editions de la Nef D'argent
166 Pages.

Poor condition of the binding, book in its original illustrated soft cover, showing signs of wear, scuffs on the headbands and corners, smooth spine, superb color illustrations on the covers, nevertheless! the book is unbound but complete, as if this work were in loose leaves.

Very good interior condition, work enriched with numerous engravings both in and out of the text, including a frontispiece, numbered edition on pure cotton vellum paper.

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