The Pentameron Translated by Sir Richard Burton<br />Drawings by Michael Ayrton

London: Spring Books, c1955. Undated but ca 1955. Hardback. 404pp. Dust jacket in a protective sleeve.. Originally published in 1634 under the title "Lo Cunto Deli Cunti overo Lo Trattenemiento de' Peccerille" (The Tale of Tales of=r the Devotion of the Little Ones). The title "Il Pentamerone" was first used in an edition of 1674. A bowdlerised English translation by John Edward Taylor with illustrations by George Cruikshank was published in London in 1848. Richard Burton's translation was published in 1893 in a two volume edition of 1500 copies for private subscribers (the text of this edition). Giambattista Basile (1575 - 1632) was a Neapolitan whose career was so typical that it could hardly have interested posterity had he not indulged his hobby of collecting what subsequently became known as folk-stories, and amused himself by writing in local dialect. Very few of the fifty tales of this book derive from literary sources, the great mass of them came from a vigorous oral tradition. Following the example of Boaccio, Basile imposed some kind of order and cohesion by setting the stories in a frame-story. But the place of the Botticelli-like figures of charming young men and women is here filled by a rabble of old harridans, lame Zena, wen-necked Menca, long-nosed Tolla and the rest, who caper around like witches at a Sabbath. This edition used the unexpurgated text of the translation by Sir Richard Burton and is embellished with six full-page drawings by Michael Ayrton. Book in very good condition. Minor soiling to the boards with an occasional light mark. Slight soiling/spotting to text block edges. Ex libris plate of Pat Milne Henderson (Patricia Jaffe, the art historian, academic and wood engraver) to front paste down. Dust jacket fair. Unclipped. Generally rubbed and soiled. Some edge wear, chipping to corners and to extremities of spine.