8vo (262 x 190 mm); 165 pages, 6 unnumbered, with 46 linocuts by Maccari (30 color plates outside the text and 16 black and white plates in the text), plus two more in color (one on the front cover, one on the inside cover), and two on the dust jacket. Paperback with title on the spine, illustrations on the boards, and a beautifully illustrated dust jacket. Gray half-cloth with red title, illustrated polychrome boards, and illustrated polychrome dust jacket. First edition. An excellent copy with minor defects on the dust jacket. Palazzeschi was one of the greatest figures in 20th-century Italian literature. Initially a Futurist, he later devoted himself to poetry and short stories, and lived in Paris, meeting international artists. After the war, he also wrote television screenplays. This is Palazzeschi's third collection of short stories, beautifully illustrated by Maccari. Eighteen stories by Palazzeschi—six of which are previously unpublished—feature in this contemporary bestiary, accompanied by splendid color plates and black-and-white vignettes by Mino Maccari, who also created the dust jacket and the large illustrations on the covers. Palazzeschi remains "of all our writers," as stated in the bibliography included with the volume, "the most unpredictable, the least classifiable, the one, as has been said, who 'resembles no one at all.'" So let's not think that, drawing on classic examples, Palazzeschi made beasts speak to teach men lessons. He didn't even think about it. His beasts 'amuse themselves' freely, commit the same 'foolishness' as men, and above all, they appreciate fantasy much more than 'wisdom.'" Jentsch, Artist's Books, p. 202b; Meloni, Maccari Catalogue Raisonné of Engravings, nos. 439-486. Gambetti-Vezzosi, p. 612. Spaducci, p. 207.