1982 | Leatherbound with slipcase | 60 pages | 460 x 320 mm
14 original Lithographs by Donald Friend
Limited Edition of 100 

Each book is signed and numbered by Donald Friend.

The anonymous wandering scholar-poet of mediaeval Europe sought shelter from the upheavals of those times in courts and monasteries. Hidden and forgotten but preserved in monastic libraries, their irreverent verses mocked their hosts and echoed the splendours and miseries of a chaotic age.

Now they have found new expression in the superb set of 14 lithographs created by Donald Friend. 

The artist’s skill, wit and profundity interprets their joyous drinking, gambling and lovemaking in taverns at the gates of despair. 

We are taken through forests of flowers and birdsong in seasons shadowed by the Black Death, hunger and poverty‚ where still prevails youthful rebellion and the sound of laughter. 

The text embodies Randolph Stow’s literal translations of the verse alongside the original versions in Latin and old German and an introduction by Professor John Scott, Dante scholar and Professor of Italian at the University of WA.

The anonymous wandering scholar-poet of mediaeval Europe sought shelter from the upheavals of those times in courts and monasteries. Hidden and forgotten but preserved in monastic libraries, their irreverent verses mocked their hosts and echoed the splendours and miseries of a chaotic age.

Now they have found new expression in the superb set of 14 lithographs created by Donald Friend. 

The artist’s skill, wit and profundity interprets their joyous drinking, gambling and lovemaking in taverns at the gates of despair. 

We are taken through forests of flowers and birdsong in seasons shadowed by the Black Death, hunger and poverty‚ where still prevails youthful rebellion and the sound of laughter. 

The text embodies Randolph Stow’s literal translations of the verse alongside the original versions in Latin and old German and an introduction by Professor John Scott, Dante scholar and Professor of Italian at the University of WA.