Paris, Maurice de Becque, 1925. Folio (34.8 x 26.4 cm). Title leaf in red and brown. Seven finely engraved and hand-coloured plates (tissue-guarded), illustrating poems on separate leaves with engraved, hand-coloured headpieces, and colour-printed pictorial endpieces. The text leaves numbered [1]-15. Loose-leaved in printed portfolio with pictorial vignette on the front side.

A wonderful publication, by Maurice de Becque, joining his impressive illustrations of wild and fierce animals with a collection of Leconte de Lisle's poems inspired by civilizations other than those of the Greeks and Romans, and with a focus on animals and their habitats. Charles Marie René Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894) was a French poet, traditionally known by his surname only. He "is most famous for his three collections of poetry: Poèmes antiques (1852), Poèmes barbares (1862) [this work], Poèmes tragiques (1884). He is also known for his translations of Ancient Greek tragedians and poets, such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Horace" (Wikipedia). The "barbaric" poems are the following: 1. Les éléphants; 2. Le sommeil du condor; 3. La panthère noire; 4. Les jungles; 5. Les taureaux; 6. Le rêve du jaguar. Each poem has a page-sized illustration of the animal mentioned in the title, except Les jungles, which shows a tiger. Les éléphants has two text leaves, the others have one. Maurice Jaubert De Becque (1878-1838) was a French illustrator, and set and costume designer, also one of the founders of the Société des Peintres Animalier. All plates show mammals, except one bird, the condor. It is hardly a surprise that De Becque illustrated Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book ( Le Livre de la Jungle, Paris, Simon Kra, 1924) too. This is No. VI (handwritten in pencil) of 20 copies "horse commerce numérotés en chiffres romains", with the handwritten text "Hommage de l'artiste", and signed by De Becque. Also inscribed in the top margin, "A mon ami Charpentier..." signed and written by De Becque. Slight wear, mostly restricted to the portfolio spine top and bottom, otherwise in excellent condition. Very rare.