Folio Archives 284: Decameron by Boccaccio LIMITED EDITIONS 1969 and 2007

The Decameron by Boccaccio SPECIALLY BOUND LIMITED EDITION 1969
The Decameron by Boccaccio LIMITED EDITION 2007



The Decameron has been published on numerous occasions by the Folio Society, BUT the contents, including the illustrations, of every edition is IDENTICAL, the only variations between them being the bindings and the paper.

The FS editions are:-
- 1954 Volume I The First Five Days. Bound in brown buckram with a design in red and green. White dust-jacket printed in green and dark red. 25.1x16.5cm.
- 1955 Volume II The Last Five Days. Bound in brown buckram with a design in red and green. White dust-jacket printed in green and dark red. 25.1x16.2cm.
- 1969 Two volumes in a brown slipcase. Bound in brown buckram.
- 1969 Small number specially bound in cream calf, extensively decorated in gilt and blind. Printed on cream paper. (Reviewed below).
- 1998 3rd. printing. Two volumes. Bound in dark green buckram with red and cream cover decorations. 26.2x17cm. Reviewed in a previous Folio Archives here.
- 2007 Single volume limited edition. Bound in red leather with gilt and green blocked cover design. Enclosed booklet "The Happy Art of Narration". (Reviewed below).

All editions were translated by Richard Aldington, and there were twenty monochrome aquatint picture plates by Buckland-Wright. There is a three page anonymous introduction, and a two page forward by the author.

The Decameron is set during the black death plague that struck Florence in 1348. Ten young people, five women and five men, flee Florence to a villa in the hills to isolate and escape the plague. To entertain themselves, each member of the group is required to tell an entertaining story to the other members over the ten days of their isolation. As a result, there are 100 stories, each five to seven pages long. Many of these tales are bawdy, or even salacious in nature, but still good reading after nearly 700 years.

1969 Specially bound edition.
The FS bound a small number in cream calf, extensively decorated in gilt and blind stamping. No record specifically mentions the number so bound, and there is no notation in the books themselves that they are special, but the limitation was probably about 500. The other differences from the standard edition of 1969 was that the book was printed on cream paper, it had colour pattern printed endpapers and the page tops were gilded.

As you can see by the pictures below, the binding is absolutely gorgeous, and one of the FS best ever bindings. The volumes had 393 & 323 pages and were housed in a plain brown slipcase 25.9x16.2cm. It cost £16 when published.













Endpapers


























































2007 Limited edition
In 2007 the Folio Society published a single volume limited edition of the Decameron in a style similar to other limited editions of the era such as Moby Dick, War and Peace, and Les Miserables. The contents is identical to all previous editions, but it is bound in red leather with blocked design in gilt and dark green on both covers, and plain green endpapers. There is a ribbon page marker, and the 710 page book has gold top page edges. It is accompanied by a paper bound eight page leaflet titled "The Happy Art of Narration".

The limitation is a generous 1750 copies, and it is housed in a dark green solander box with gilt title on spine that measures 28.3x19.3x7.8cm. When published it cost £135.





































Pamphlet enclosed in Solander box with Decameron










An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

It's probably worth mentioning that the printing quality of the illustrations in the 1954 and 1955 respective 1st editions thus are superior to those in subsequent printings, including the special cream leather binding and the later limited edition issues. In those earliest printings Buckland-Wright's aquatints were reproduced as collotypes, with finer gradations in shading evident. In the various re-issues, irrespective of the binding styles, the aquatints were reproduced as slightly darker half-tones with regrettable loss of fine detail.

Letterpress printed too, those 1st ed thus copies are a bargain on the secondary market! l

>2 cronshaw:
I wouldn't argue with your conclusion about the early printings of this very popular FS work being a bargain because they are remarkably cheap. I confess, however, that I don't see much advantage in the factory letterpress work of the time, and I have a definite quibble about your remarks about the illustrations. The 1969 edition, leather-bound or not, has collotypes made by Cotswold Collotypes (the 1955/56 ones were by Chiswick Collotypes), not half-tones. My advice to people looking to acquire an FS edition of this book would be start with the early edition because it's cheap, but save up hard for an upgrade to the cream leather just as soon as you can - even Warwick's splendid review hardly does justice to the books in the hand.

I consider myself fortunate to own the cream leather edition, and would point out that the colophon pages of both volumes clearly state "Second edition (reset) 1969". Wether the "reset" refers to something other than the text or not I don't know, but it would suggest that, perhaps, not all editions are identical.

>3 affle: My apologies Alan for my incorrect statement that the cream leather edition uses half-tones rather than collotypes. I made this mistake because at one point my untreated Foliomania had me own both the original first printings (1955/56) and the delightful cream leather-clad edition. In comparing the illustrations of both side by side I was disappointed to note the loss of fine detail and shading in the latter, and assumed that this was the result of half-tone reproduction, as I remembered another Devotee many years ago having mentioned that there had been a reduction in image quality in a later printing when the collotypes were replaced by half-tones: that must have happened later than 1969. In any case, as a result of my the disappointment following my side-by-side examination, I decided to recycle my cream leather set on the secondary market and keep the first printings with which I remain enamoured!

>5 cronshaw: I have a chance to buy either the 1954/55 edition (in a 1960 reprint) or the 1969 leather-bound one. Cronshaw, if you see this thread, would you say the loss of quality in the 1969 illustrations was significant? I much prefer the binding of the 1969 edition…

I recently acquired the cream leather edition at a used bookstore, at a remarkably low cost (I believe it was priced as if it were the buckram edition). I can't compare the illustrations to the 1955 versions, but they look clean and sharp and erotic to me. The bindings are amazingly beautiful. Aldington's translation has some limitations, but it's good enough, and the books are lovely to hold.

I think they should do a standard edition with Wayne Rebhorn's translation if they could get the rights. Or maybe a Fine Edition. Or a LE with a very generous limitation that leads to not exorbitant price.

Best condition ever!

>9 Lukas1990:
Congratulations! They are wonderful books.

>9 Lukas1990: Whoa, talk about mint condition, congratulations!

>10 wcarter:, >11 kdweber: Wish it was mine... It is still for sale on abebooks. My set is not that beautiful.

>6 BorisG: I'm sorry I completely missed your question. It would have been best to send me a personal message! The difference was quite noticeable to me on close examination, but if you only scan the illustrations you may well not spot any difference. If you much prefer one binding over the other it sounds as though you should go for that one, as the difference in bindings is far more striking than the difference in illustration quality. Which one did you get in the end?

>13 cronshaw: No worries! I went for the 1969 leather-bound version, which is gorgeous. I now need to sell my copy of the 2007 LE…

>14 BorisG: The cream leather one does look magnificent on the shelf, bravo!

>9 Lukas1990: I ended up buying this copy. It is indeed in excellent condition. But now I can attest, also owning the 1954 edition, that the illustrations are definitely better in the earlier printing. The later edition images are much contrastier and, while you still get the idea, they lose the subtlety and charm of the original (but, oh, that binding!). I'll be keeping both editions.

If you want to see these illustrations really printed well, check out Sensuous Lines, Fleece Press, 2014.

>16 Chemren: "But, oh, that binding".

Yes, exactly! Great buy!

I wonder what caused the decline in quality of those illustrations. I remember that the printing method for illustrations was the same in both editions but the 1954 was done by Chiswick Press or Curwen Press (both superb printing houses).

>17 Lukas1990:

According to Folio 60, the illustrations in the 1954-55 and 1969 editions were printed by the collotype process.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collotype

It's clear from the introduction to Sensuous Lines that the artist was unhappy with collotype, but was prepared to put up with inferior and even bad reproduction if that meant that he could continue with copper engraving:
"But these days with the present uninformed and uneducated public and the economic conditions which are making it more and more impossible to produce first class stuff I feel that we may have to descend to collotype. There seems to be no way out."