Vitam Impendere Amori

Following the end of his relationship with Marie Laurencin Apollinaire made a livre de peintre with his fellow flaneur André Rouveyre of six poems and eight illustrations. The title is a play on the quote from Juvenal Vitam impendere vero - to stake one’s life for the truth - but more directly by reference to Rousseau's use of it. The poems are some of Apollinaire's most symbolist, set in a twilight world of actors, columbines and soldiers in deserted parkland. The little chapbook has long been folded into anthologies after his Bestiary, where there frail beauty is lost. The Flowerdew Press mimotype restores it to its original form. Rouveyre's illustrations being unavailable for various reasons, eight of Watteau's sketches (so inspirational to Apollinaire) in a matching pose have been substituted.