Giovanni Boccaccio - The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio (Limited Edition) - 1903

A finely bound copy of Rigg's edition, the "most long lived of the early 20th-century versions"

A collection of one-hundred short stories, originally written in the fourteenth century, told by a group of seven young women and three young men as they shelter in a villa outside of Florence to escape the Black Death. The tales range from the erotic to the tragic, from tales of wit to moral life lessons. This work is considered an important record of Italian life at this time. Written by Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer, poet, and Renaissance humanist who was a known correspondent of Petrarch.

This handsome set is Limited Edition to 1,000 copies. Complete in two volumes. Translated by James Macmullen Rigg (a British barrister, legal scholar, and translator). Illustrated with 15 tissue-guarded photogravure plates by Louis Chalon (a French artist who exhibited classically inspired paintings).

Privately printed for the Navarre Society Limited, London, 1903. Publishers’ original Cream cloth boards, stamped in gilt on upper covers, and lettered and decorated in gilt on spines. Top page edges gilt.

Book Dimensions: 23 x 15 x 4 cm and Number of Pages (Two Volumes): 332 + 404
Weight over 2 kg unpackaged

Condition:
The set is beautifully bound, designed and illustrated. Firm and well-bound volumes. External covers in nice shape, show signs of their age with few faded marks. Internally; the books in very good condition. No names or inscriptions. Unevenly cut page edges. Pages are bright and clean, with light foxing mainly to the free endpaper pages and first few pages. All plates are present, and in nice condition (Please see pictures).