Levana a Matky Žalu. (Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow)
Čapek, Josef. Quincey, Thomas de. (Jaroslav Skalický, Trans.)
(Old Imperial Moravia). 1927
The rare 1927 Czech edition of de Quincey's 'Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow' with Josef Čapek's linocuts all with additional colour by hand.
From the edition limited to 200 numbered copies, numbered in ink and signed by Čapek in pencil.
All copies traced feature Čapek's signature in pencil to the title, however, in this copy, Čapek has signed the title as usual, and, in addition, the frontispiece, the four full-page hors texte plates and the final tail-piece. Given that the colouring for the edition was done usually in the studio of Maria Florian, is this, perhaps, an indication that Čapek himself coloured these plates and vignettes.
'Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow' forms a part of Thomas de Quincey's extraordinary 'Suspirira de Produndis', itself considered by de Quincey to be the sequel to his 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'. Portions of 'Suspiria de Profundis' (including 'Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow' were published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1845 but a larger part was not published until after de Quincey's death. Lauded by Baudelaire who translated 'Suspiria de Profundis' into French, de Quincey's prose poem was admired too by the Surrealists and Breton included him in his 'Anthologie de l'Humour Noir' (1940). 'Suspiria de Profundis' was first translated into Czech in the early twentieth century but this first illustrated edition, featuring original linocut illustration by Josef Capek, a member of 'Devětsil', was certainly the most important.
'The third and last part of the dreams of an opium-eater has a lamentable title, which, however, is well justified, 'Suspiria de profundis'. In one of these visions appeared three unforgettable figures, mysteriously terrible like the Grecian 'Moires' and the 'Mothers' of the second 'Faust'. These are the followers of Levana, the austere goddess who takes up the new-born babe and perfects it by sorrow. As there were three Graces, three Fates, three Furies, three Muses in the primitive ages, so there were three goddesses of sorrow; they are our Notre-Dame des Tristesses. The eldest of the three sisters is called Mater lacrymarum, or Our Lady of Tears; the second Mater suspiriorum, Our Lady of Sighs; the third and youngest, Mater tenebrarum, Our Lady of Darkness, the most redoubtable of all, and of whom the strongest cannot dream without a secret terror. These mournful spectres do not speak the language of mortals; they weep, they sigh, and make terrible gestures in the shadows. Thus they express their unknown sorrows, their nameless anguish, the suggestions of solitary despair, all that there is of suffering, bitterness, and sorrow in the depths of the human soul. Man ought to take warning from these initiators: 'Thus will he see things that ought not to be seen, sights which are abominable, and unspeakable secrets; thus will he read the ancient truths, the sad, great, and terrible truths.'' (Théophile Gautier).
This edition is rare: OCLC reports copies at the National Library of the Czech Republic and in the US at the Getty, Yale, Boston Public Library, Newberry and the Lilly Library. We trace no further examples.
[see 'Charles Baudelaire, His Life', Guy Thorne's translation of Théophile Gautier's 'Charles Baudelaire, Sa Vie ... &c.', London, 1915].
From the edition limited to 200 numbered copies, numbered in ink and signed by Čapek in pencil.
All copies traced feature Čapek's signature in pencil to the title, however, in this copy, Čapek has signed the title as usual, and, in addition, the frontispiece, the four full-page hors texte plates and the final tail-piece. Given that the colouring for the edition was done usually in the studio of Maria Florian, is this, perhaps, an indication that Čapek himself coloured these plates and vignettes.
'Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow' forms a part of Thomas de Quincey's extraordinary 'Suspirira de Produndis', itself considered by de Quincey to be the sequel to his 'Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'. Portions of 'Suspiria de Profundis' (including 'Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow' were published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1845 but a larger part was not published until after de Quincey's death. Lauded by Baudelaire who translated 'Suspiria de Profundis' into French, de Quincey's prose poem was admired too by the Surrealists and Breton included him in his 'Anthologie de l'Humour Noir' (1940). 'Suspiria de Profundis' was first translated into Czech in the early twentieth century but this first illustrated edition, featuring original linocut illustration by Josef Capek, a member of 'Devětsil', was certainly the most important.
'The third and last part of the dreams of an opium-eater has a lamentable title, which, however, is well justified, 'Suspiria de profundis'. In one of these visions appeared three unforgettable figures, mysteriously terrible like the Grecian 'Moires' and the 'Mothers' of the second 'Faust'. These are the followers of Levana, the austere goddess who takes up the new-born babe and perfects it by sorrow. As there were three Graces, three Fates, three Furies, three Muses in the primitive ages, so there were three goddesses of sorrow; they are our Notre-Dame des Tristesses. The eldest of the three sisters is called Mater lacrymarum, or Our Lady of Tears; the second Mater suspiriorum, Our Lady of Sighs; the third and youngest, Mater tenebrarum, Our Lady of Darkness, the most redoubtable of all, and of whom the strongest cannot dream without a secret terror. These mournful spectres do not speak the language of mortals; they weep, they sigh, and make terrible gestures in the shadows. Thus they express their unknown sorrows, their nameless anguish, the suggestions of solitary despair, all that there is of suffering, bitterness, and sorrow in the depths of the human soul. Man ought to take warning from these initiators: 'Thus will he see things that ought not to be seen, sights which are abominable, and unspeakable secrets; thus will he read the ancient truths, the sad, great, and terrible truths.'' (Théophile Gautier).
This edition is rare: OCLC reports copies at the National Library of the Czech Republic and in the US at the Getty, Yale, Boston Public Library, Newberry and the Lilly Library. We trace no further examples.
[see 'Charles Baudelaire, His Life', Guy Thorne's translation of Théophile Gautier's 'Charles Baudelaire, Sa Vie ... &c.', London, 1915].
[12 leaves of thick Japon paper including initial and terminal blanks; pp. 19, (i), (i)]. Small folio. (335 x 258 mm). Leaf with half-title recto and original linoleum cut frontispiece with additional colour by hand verso, title in red and black with original linoleum cut vignette and de Quincey's text in Czech illustrated with four full-page hors texte linoleum cuts and nine linoleum cut vignettes, final leaf with colophon and justification verso; the sheets retaining their deckle edges throughout, all linoleum cuts with additional colour by hand, the full-page linoleum cuts and the title vignette and final tail-piece signed in pencil by Čapek. Sheet size: 328 x 248 mm. Later milk chocolate crushed morocco, banded spine with gilt title, turn-ins ruled in blind, pale green laid paper doublures and free endpapers, original wrappers with printed titles in red preserved, matching morocco-edged patterned paper-covered board slipcase.
#48777
