WILDE, Oscar (1854–1900). De Profundis: From a Letter of Oscar Wilde Addressed to a Friend, Written in MDCCCXCVII & Called by Him Epistola in Carcere et Vinculis. Milan: Edizioni della Chimera, December 1945. [Verona: Officina Bodoni.].
FIRST EDITION THUS, the first Officina Bodoni edition.
Copy no. 35 of 125 copies, one of 121 numbered copies printed on Fabriano handmade paper. Four further copies, numbered I–IV, were printed on Japanese paper, were not offered for sale, and were dedicated by Aldo Borletti to the memory of Roby Lepetit.
Octavo (260 × 178 × 22 mm). 114, [4] pages. Printed in Wilde’s original English in Stempel Garamond, 16-point roman and italic. Text in black, with the title and opening initial in blue. Printed by hand under the direction of Giovanni Mardersteig on the press of the Officina Bodoni, Verona, in December 1945. The colophon bears the Officina Bodoni device in blue and records the limitation, paper, printer, and copy number.
Publisher’s full vellum, title lettered in gilt on the spine; untrimmed, preserving the deckled edges of the Fabriano paper. Original glassine dust jacket and original marbled-paper-covered card slipcase.
Wilde wrote De Profundis in Reading Gaol in 1897 as a letter to Lord Alfred Douglas and entitled it Epistola in Carcere et Vinculis. This edition prints the work in its original English.
Mardersteig founded the Officina Bodoni at Montagnola di Lugano in 1922 and named it for Giambattista Bodoni after receiving permission to cast type from Bodoni’s original matrices at Parma. In 1927 the press moved to Verona after Mardersteig was entrusted with the design and printing of the national edition of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s works.
The British Library’s memorial exhibition catalogue described the Officina’s books as being produced to exacting editorial and scholarly standards, with carefully chosen materials and every stage carried out under Mardersteig’s close supervision. Will Carter called him “probably the finest pressman the world has ever seen or is ever likely to see.”
Mardersteig defined the printer’s task in three parts: service to the author, by finding the form best suited to the subject; service to the reader, by making reading as pleasant and easy as possible; and giving the whole book an attractive appearance without imposing too much of the printer’s own personality.
He regarded the hand press as being under the direct control of the printer’s hand and eye. He valued printing on damp handmade paper because it required less ink and produced a sharper, more even impression. As he wrote, “The constant delight of the printer in his work is the fresh appearance of flawless matt black on the damp paper.”
The present book uses large Stempel Garamond type on Fabriano handmade paper, with broad margins and blue confined to the title, opening initial, and Officina Bodoni device.
LITERATURE. Schmoller 73. Giovanni Mardersteig, The Officina Bodoni: An Account of the Work of a Hand Press, 1923–1977, edited and translated by Hans Schmoller, Verona: Edizioni Valdonega, 1980. British Library, Officina Bodoni exhibition catalogue, 1978.
CONDITION. The book is fine. The full vellum binding is clean and sound, and the gilt spine lettering remains bright. Internally clean and fresh, with the Fabriano handmade paper and deckled edges well preserved. The original glassine dust jacket has a short tear and light creasing at the lower edge; otherwise well preserved. The original marbled-paper-covered slipcase lacks its narrow top and bottom panels. Its spine and both broad side panels remain intact, firm, and attractive; the case retains its shape and stands well around the book.
