Rome: Edoardo Tinto Editore; Edizioni della Casa d'Arte Bragaglia, 1923–1928. Various sizes, most ca. 19.0 × 13.5 cm. Original printed self-wrappers; between 16 and 24 pp. per issue. Most issues very good or better; occasional faint postal stamps or light spotting; issue no. 85 with pencil scribblings to cover and several interior pages; issues no. 95 and 96 removed from Sammelband, and lightly resized (ca. 17.5 × 12.5 cm), with no loss to text.

Nearly complete run of this rare Italian futurist satirical journal, edited by Anton Giulio Bragaglia (1890–1960), who is primarily known for his work in futurist film and photography, and for his journal Cronache di Attualità, out of which the present publication developed. “This ‘Roman Compendium’, as it was subtitled, continued the use of the sfottetti or ‘take-offs’ found in the column I misteri della Cabala [The Mysteries of the Kabbalah] of its parent magazine, i.e. contemptuous and sarcastic comments on events and personalities of the art world… Bragaglia’s take-offs spared no one, not even ex Futurists and Futurists: ‘Giovanni Papini, the satyr of God’, ‘F. T. Farinetti, the lecher of the Madonna’… An invaluable means of reconstructing the artistic and literary climate and events of those years, the ‘Index’ among other things provided news of a visit to Rome by the founder of Dada: ‘Tristan Tzara has come to Rome. He hasn’t been here for two years and we felt the need to see him!... The pope of Dadaism has paid a visit to Bragaglia” (Salaris, Riviste Futuriste: Collezione Echaurren Salaris). The issues also contain caricatures and portraits of various artistic figures, with contributions by Ivo Pannaggi, Amerigo Bartoli, Leo Longanesi, Giorgio de Chirico, Orio Vergani, Paolo Garretto, Umberto Onorato, Sergio Tofano, Niklavs Strunke, and others. Two issues (104, October-November 1926, and 107, December 1928) are devoted to the Teatro Sperimentale degli Indipendenti, and are illustrated with numerous photographs showing the space itself.

Very rare, a nearly complete collection in thirty fascicles (of thirty-two published), lacking only no. 77 (dated October 1, 1923) and no. 81 (dated January 1924). Originally published as a supplement to the third series of Cronache d’Attualità, Index is rather confusingly numbered. Based on the latest research, the first separate issue was no. 77 and the last issue was no. 107 (December 1928); several numbers were erroniously repeated (Salaris inaccurately suggests that over one hundred issues appeared). The journal appeared monthly, in some cases bi-monthly, and from 1927 on irregularly. All issues are printed on differently colored paper stock and illustrated throughout, with photographs and from drawings.

Provenance: the collection of Giampiero Mughini (with some later additions). See Mughini, Collezione Mughini; Salaris, Riviste Futuriste, pp. 1006–1017. As of June 2020, KVK and OCLC show no copies outside of Italy.

Book ID: 52660

Price: $9,500.00