Josef Váchal (1884-1969)

Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907)

SATANU

1926
Book format 2°, 58,5x33,5 cm. Artist`s book. Unpaginated, loose sheets of handmade paper in a sturdy full-cloth cover adorned with a gilt-stamped title. Contains 11 full-page color linocuts printed with English inks (10 illustrations accompanying the poem and one decorative dedication sheet). Hand-set, printed, and published by Josef Váchal in May and June 1926 in Vršovice, in an edition of 17 copies. This copy is marked with seven fingerprint impressions and signed by the author in the colophon. Slightly spotted paper. The poem L’Inno a Satana (1865, Hymn to Satan) by poet, historian, and politician Giosuè Carducci, a Nobel Prize laureate in literature, portrays Satan as a symbol of progress, nature, and earthly joy. The poem brought its author great fame but also sparked fierce debates. Váchal interpreted it through the lens of Blavatská’s commentary on Lucifer and illustrated it with eleven full-page color linocuts (ten figurative illustrations plus one ornamental sheet titled Dedication). He printed and bound his books in very limited editions, and in most cases, this book was not bound by the author himself. The text was set in 4000 characters of his custom typeface Ďas, which he used here for the first time, and printed on handmade paper of his own production. This is one of Váchal’s most outstanding large-format works. It gained recognition soon after its publication, and in 1927, Váchal exhibited it in Florence, where it was awarded a prize at an international exhibition of fine books.