Eugenio Montale

Ossi di seppia

Torino [Turin], Piero Gobetti editore (tipografia Carlo Accame), 1925 (June), original wrappers printed in black ink to the boards and spine, roll printed in burgundy (graphically in symphony with every book printed by Gobetti, with the engraving drawn by Felice Casorati), pp. 100.

First edition.

The most important Italian poetry collection of the Twentieth Century

Cuttlefish bones comprises 43 poems, a few of which (revised in the book) had been published in cultural periodicals in the years immediately preceding 1925.

A run of 1000 copies was planned; Montale himself also mentioned a 15-copy first issue in a letter he wrote to Gobetti: «I know that you will not budge on the cover (“frangar non flectar”), but you could add my name and the title to the spine. It would work for every book. I also know that you shall print a deluxe state (!) and I thank you. Please print 15 copies […]».

This issue, however, was never mentioned again, so it almost certainly never came to be. Many years later, Montale said in an interview that «the first [edition] was sold out after a day or two because the deposit [where the copies were kept] burned down. My father did not know it had been printed».

Bibliography

— Barile, Bibliografia montaliana, A1
— Accame-Lanzillotta, Le edizioni e i tipografi Gobetti, n. 69
— Gambetti, Preziosi del Novecento (Alai 3, 2017)