Reliquary

FIRST EDITION limited to 550 copies on satin vellum.

Reliquary, which constitutes the first collected edition of Rimbaud's poetry, was published in early November 1891, "at the very moment when, disdainful of his burgeoning fame, the poet, defeated by adventure, was dying in Marseille" (Monda [&] Montel, p. 33). In 1895, Léon Vanier produced a second edition with five previously unpublished pieces and variations under the title of Poésies complètes.The forty-five poems in this seminal collection appear for the first time in volume, with the exception of the eight pieces included by Verlaine in the two editions of Poètes maudits. Four pieces retained by the editor are apocryphal: Les Cornues, Le Limaçon, Doctrine and Poison perdu.

A copy from the correct date and complete with Rodolphe Darzens' preface, which he disavowed and had partially removed from a portion of the print run by court order. The truncated copies were put back on sale in 1892 under a revamped title.