25 - BERNARD (Émile).

BERNARD (Émile). Couronne d'amour. Poems. Cairo: E. Messina & Cie Press, 1902. — In-8, 260 x 177: 88 pp., (13 ff. of music), illustrated cover. Paperback, untrimmed. A very rare first edition of this collection of poems by the painter and engraver Émile Bernard (1868–1941), published in Cairo. It is illustrated with a woodcut by the author on the front cover and three others attributed to him, on the title page, at the beginning of the first poem, and on the back cover; at the end, spanning 13 leaves, are reproductions of seven musical scores by Andrée Fort, sister of the poet Paul Fort and then Émile Bernard’s partner, whom he eventually married in a religious ceremony in 1938, following the death of Hanenah Saati, his first wife. Only 50 numbered copies were printed on Dutch laid paper; this copy bears the number 1. There is some soiling and pinholes on the cover; otherwise, the copy is very well preserved and uncut.