Constantine Peter Cavafy (1863-1933)
Ποιήματα [Poems 1905-1915]; [and:] – [Poems 1916-1918]. Alexandria: Th. Kasimati and K. Iona, 1930-1929.
Rare volumes of Cavafy's self-published thematic collections of poetry. Cavafy published his poems by having individual poems printed on separate sheets which he then clipped together and distributed privately (see Christie's sale 18887, lot 153). The result is that there are no standard early editions of Cavafy's poems, as he altered the compositions over time. The present volumes are the nearest Cavafy would come to producing bound volumes of his poetry, and the order of poems presented here – 40 poems in (1905-1915) and 28 in (1916-1918) – has been used in The Collected Poems published by Oxford University Press in 2007 (see Anthony Hirst's 'Note on the Greek Text', pp.xxxiv-xxxv). The volumes themselves consist of sheets printed between 1926-1930 (and possibly earlier or later), some sheets without imprints, and others with foliation amended in ink or pencil manuscript. In the second volumes, the last 2 words in line 3 of 'To Sensual Pleasure' have been added in ink manuscript, and the 4th printed line has been completely deleted in ink; the emendation is closely comparable to the one present in the copy in the Cavafy archive https://cavafy.onassis.org/object/u-1916-1918-3/

2 volumes, octavo (245 x 155mm). Ff. [i], 46, [ii]; [i], 30, [i], printed on rectoes only. Upper wrapper and title of second vol. printed in green, folded slip with letterpress giving dates of publication of poems loosely inserted at end of vol. II (occasional faint spotting). Original light grey wrappers (upper wrapper to vol. I faintly creased).

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