Folio. 125 pp., each with a colour illustration, 132 colour illustrations (5 hors text) by Etienne Dinet, numerous vignettes, half-title, translated by Marcel Devic, publisher’s original pictorial wrappers, fitted in a rarely preserved publisher’s embossed green folder, title page printed within decorated borders, each chapter begins with a different framework with its own typography, all by Dinet, translated from original Arabic by Marcel Devic, all on vellum paper, weak spine, wrappers detached, otherwise a very nice copy, Edition d’Art, H. Piazza et Cie. Editeurs, Paris, 1898.

Synopsis

LIMITED EDITION TO 300 COPIES, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS A PRESENTATION COPY BY THE CONTRIBUTORS TO “MONSIEUR REGIS”. An absolutely stunning book. The illustrations by Etienne Alphonse Dinet (1861-1929) bring to life the Arabic legend of Antar, the triumph of good over evil. Dinet spent a large part of his life in Algeria. He exhibited nearly every year his orientalist canvases at the Exposition Universelle and at the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français. This work is the first of a series of highly artistic publications published by Piazza. The poem of Antar was discussed by the famous French poet Alphonse Lamartine in his Voyage En Orient. Marcel Devic translated it for the first time from the original Arabic in 1894. It is considered as a masterpiece of Arabic literature written by the famous Arab warrior and poet Antar Bin Shaddad in the 13th century. The scenes painted by Dinet mainly depict life in the Algerian desert. In 1889 Dinet glorified Antar by a large canvas entitled “ La vengeance des fils d’Antar”.