Somoff Constantin / Longus / Courier Paul-Louis - Lot 254

Lot 254
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Somoff Constantin / Longus / Courier Paul-Louis - Lot 254
Somoff Constantin / Longus / Courier Paul-Louis Daphnis and Chloe. Nice edition illustrated with 8 watercolours by Constantin Somoff and with a translation and preface by Paul-Louis Courier. Published in Paris, by Editions du Trianon, in 1931. Covered with a brocaded cover. A fairly well-preserved copy: usual rubbing on the headdresses and on the edges. Inside fresh and without freckles. Daphnis and Chloe is a Greek novel attributed to a certain Longus and dated from the first or second century of the Christian era. Daphnis and Chloe is presented in the manuscripts as a set of "pastorals of Longus". Nothing is known about Longus, and the few conjectures that have been made are largely the result of a transfer of the fictitious characteristics of the narrator to the author's biography. The narrator is presented by the author as a hunter who by chance discovers, in Lesbos, a painting in a sanctuary representing the allegory of Love. He gets an explanation from a local guide, and immediately decides to compose a story on the same subject. Hunting was then a leisure activity for rich city dwellers. Moreover, the curiosity he shows in the sanctuary seems to show that he is a cultured man. One could wonder about his origin, his notations on the island of Lesbos appearing to be the work of a foreigner.
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