Ivan Kotliarevs'kyi (1769-1838) was a writer, poet, playwright, and pioneer of Ukrainian literature. The Eneida is his most renowned work, which is a 'travesty poem', a quasi-satirical form of a parody, in this instance playing off the classic poem of Virgil. It is the first poem to use Ukrainian vernacular language and is recognised as the starting point of Ukrainian literature. The present volume is the first in a series of the Ukrains'ka kul'turna skarbnits'ia (Ukrainian Cultural Treasury) edited by O. Babiy, which appeared at least through 1938 from Lviv. It's illustrated with three striking drawings by Myron Nikolaiyevich Levits'kyi (1913-1993), painter, graphic artist and journalist who worked in Lviv from 1935 and emigrated to Canada in 1949. He led a multifaceted career and exhibited widely in his lifetime. He is credited for modernising Ukrainian sacred art and freeing it from the traditional Byzantine style among other achievements in book arts and authorship and journalism. The cover designer Roman Chornyi (1905-1940) was a graphic artist, illustrator, and painter who worked in Lviv and produced fine modernist graphics; he studied and worked in workshops with Hordynskyi. When Lviv was occupied by the Soviets in 1939 he fell into the hands of the NKVD and was executed. A scarce work. Not found on OCLC.First edition, 8vo (17.5 x 13.5 cm); three illustrations in black & white by Myron Levyts'kyi, contemporary ink inscription in Ukrainian to title page, title a little soiled, repair to gutter; wrappers printed in red & black designed by Roman Chornyi, wrappers worn with loss, restored with newer paper, else a good copy.
