1886 The Heptameron

Description

Colour Plates, First Edition, Illustrated, Leather Binding

An extra illustrated copy, bound in two volumes.

The first edition of Arthur Machen's translation, notable for being the first unabridged and thorough translation, following on from abridged translations from the prior centuries. 

Bound by Ritter.

Volume I is illustrated with a water-colour half-title, frontispiece, engraved title, and one-hundred and eight plates.

Volume II is illustrated with a water-colour half-title, frontispiece, and one-hundred and fifty plates.

'The Heptameron' is a collection of seventy-two short stories, with the stories dealing with subjects such as infidelity, love, and lust, one story being based off the live of Marguerite de La Rocque.

The stories were inspired by 'The Decameron' by Giovanni Boccaccio. Marguerite of Navarre intended to write one hundred stories covering ten days, but her early death meant that she only completed up to the second story of the eighth day.

Marguerite de Navarre was the Queen of Navarre, and was an ancestor of the Bourbon Kings of France. Navarre was a prominent figure during the French Renaissance, being an author and a patron of humanists and reformers.