The Eclogues by VIRGIL (Publius Virgilius Maro); LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB; VERTÈS, illustrator; CALVERLEY, C.S., translator

New York: Printed for the Members of The Limited Editions Club at the Press of A. Colish, 1960. With Twelve Full-Page Illustrations by Carlotta Petrina

VIRGIL (Publius Virgilius Maro). The Eclogues. Translated into English Verse by C.S. Calverley. With an introduction by Moses Hadas and Drawings by Vertès. New York: The Limited Editions Club at the Press of A. Colish, 1960.

Limited to 1,500 copies signed by Vertès, this being no. 1456.

Folio (12 1/4 x 9 1/16 inches; 310 x 230 mm.). 126 pp. Numerous drawings in line and water-color by Marcel Vertès.

Publisher's three-quarter gold-toned Shiki silk, silk-screened with a Vertès drawing in green, tan cloth spine lettered in gilt. Housed in the publisher's tan cloth slipcase, lettered in black on spine. A fine copy.

The Eclogues, also called the Bucolics, is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Taking as his generic model the Greek Bucolica by Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offering a dramatic and mythic interpretation of revolutionary change at Rome in the turbulent period between approximately 44 and 38 BC. Virgil introduced political clamor largely absent from Theocritus' poems, called idylls, even though erotic turbulence disturbs the "idyllic" landscapes of Theocritus. Virgil's book contains ten pieces, each called not an idyll but an eclogue ("draft" or "selection" or "reckoning"), populated by and large with herdsmen imagined conversing and performing amoebaean singing in largely rural settings, whether suffering or embracing revolutionary change or happy or unhappy love. Performed with great success on the Roman stage, they feature a mix of visionary politics and eroticism that made Virgil a celebrity, legendary in his own lifetime.

Marcel Vertès (1895-1961) was a Hungarian costume designer and illustrator. He won two Academy Awards (Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design) for his work on the 1952 film Moulin Rouge. Vertès was also responsible for the original murals in the Café Carlyle in the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, New York.

Limited Editions Club Bibliography, 310.