Evelyn Paul: Dante’s La Vita Nuova
Categories: FeaturedSingle, Literature & Poetry
Written By: John
Evelyn Paul lived in the late 19th and the early 20th century and worked to beautifully illuminate and illustrate many books. Many had art with Christian themes such as this, but her work was much broader as well. Most if not all of her work was done in the first quarter of the 20th century. Many people feel that she did her best work for the books (such as La Vita Nuova) put out by Harrap. Because the text is available elsewhere, I have not scanned or included that much here. The complete texts and illustrations of this as well as some of the other manuscripts she illuminated are available (off this site) CLICK HERE.
I have included two versions of most images. The paper and colors were fairly age toned, so I removed some of this. I tried to fix any color distortion or brightness issues, but I cannot say how well teh touched up images reflect the original state of the illustrations. The only copies I have seen have been similarly ages. Some images, such as the angel from page 115, I have posted in a few versions to reflect the colors brought out by different edits.
The edited full page illustrations I have posted at a much larger size than usual, 3000 pixels on the long side. I am not sure why. I guess I had them so I decided to put them up for folks to have.
There are a lot of margin details. I scanned as much as I could from various pages. Paul added intricate detail to almost all the pages, so there is a lot to work with in the book. Some have had edited versions added as well.
Below is a sampling. There is a lot more in the GALLERY for this book.
Title: La Vita Nuova (The New Life)
Author: Dante Alighieri
Artist: Evelyn Paul
Publisher: George G. Harrap / Brentanos
Date Published: 1916
Title Page
Page 9
Page 14
Page 27
Page 31
Page 43
Page 49
Page 59
Page 75
Page 83
Page 93
Page 101
Page 127
Page 137Page 144
Page 157
Page 165
Page 116 Detail - Zodiac Mandala
Page 115 Detail - Angel
Page 70 Detail - Two Men in a Garden
Page 164 Detail - Circle and Star Design
Page 111 Detail
Page 111 Detail - Unedited
Page 120
Page 135 - Madonna and Child
Page 5 Detail
Page 12 Detail
Page 37 Detail
November 29th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Do you have any idea of a dollar value? My mother has a copy of this book, although the colours seem faded compared to what you have posted.
November 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
The value of the edition I used would be in the range of $50 to $150, or a bit more if you found the right market. I am basing my values on what I have seen it go for on eBay as well as asking prices in various online stores. If I needed to buy one right away without waiting for a good deal to come along I might have to pay closer to $200. If I wanted to sell it immediately I would probably get a price in the lower end, say $50 to $100 on eBay unless I was lucky and found some competing bidders to bid the price up. If you sold it directly to a book dealer you should expect to get on the low end, even a bit lower maybe. For insurance purposes it is rather negligible, just replacement value, and last time I checked you could get a copy easily within the ranges I refer to. This is all just approximation of course.
My images may be brighter because I have enhanced them a bit to remove the age toning or browning.
Thanks for visiting the site.
- John